Method of using server, server reservation control apparatus and program storage medium

ABSTRACT

In a content supply system, in order to use a streaming server to perform a live distribution, a user PC used makes a reservation for a time zone, etc. to a server reservation control center. When the user PC sends desired reservation information to the server reservation control center via the Internet, if the reservation is accepted, a reservation ID only used for authentication of the reservation is created and sent from the server reservation control center to the user PC via the Internet. When a distribution request is sent from the user PC to the streaming server, authentication processing using this reservation ID is performed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 15/015,791, filedFeb. 4, 2016, which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 13/442,511, filedApr. 9, 2012, which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 11/844,182, filedAug. 23, 2007 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,370,498), the entire contents of eachof which are incorporated herein by reference. U.S. Ser. No. 11/844,182,filed Aug. 23, 2007 is a divisional of U.S. Ser. No. 10/089,083, filedApr. 10, 2002 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,392,315) which is the National Stageof PCT/JP01/07419 filed Aug. 29, 2001 which claims the benefit ofpriority from the prior Japanese Patent Applications No. 2000-264561,filed Aug. 31, 2000.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a method of using a server foraccessing a processing server that performs predetermined processing,via a network to use functions of the processing server, a serverreservation control apparatus that controls reservations for the use ofthe processing server and a program storage medium that stores a programto be executed by the server reservation apparatus.

BACKGROUND ART

In a computer network system, it is conventionally a common practicethat the individual opens a homepage to provide content created over theInternet.

When a user personally opens a homepage, the user acquires a homepagecreation program via a personal computer (hereinafter referred to a“PC”), creates a homepage hyper-linked with a plurality of content,based on the homepage creation program and stores the homepage in aserver of an Internet service provider (hereinafter referred to as“ISP”).

Then, the ISP provides the homepage to clients who access it over theInternet from the server and when an anchor on the homepage is clicked,then the ISP provides linked content.

In recent years, content supplied to clients over the Internet includemany moving images and voice in addition to still images. To providecontent such as these moving images, moving image files and voice filescreated by the user are uploaded beforehand in a predetermined storagearea of a streaming server of the ISP. Then, at the request of theclient, the streaming server of the ISP performs stream distribution ofthe file corresponding to the request to the client over the Internet.

Furthermore, the technique of performing stream distribution of contentsuch as moving images to clients over the Internet also includes atechnique called “live distribution” in addition to “on-demanddistribution” whereby a moving image file is uploaded in the streamingserver beforehand and distributed in response to a request from a clientas described above. In live distribution, moving image data created by acontent creator, for example, using a digital camera, is encoded in realtime and this is set to the streaming server over the Internet, etc.Then, the streaming server performs streaming reproduction whilerecording the moving image data supplied in real time from the contentcreator in a dedicated storage area and can thereby supply the movingimage data in real time to the requesting client.

On the other hand, when the above-described live distribution isperformed, the content creator needs to send moving image data to thestreaming server in real time, and it is necessary to secure acommunication path to transmit moving image data between the streamingserver and a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as “PC”) of thecontent distributor for a period during the live distribution. Thislimits the number of content that can be live-distributed using thestreaming server during the same period and in a time zone to which manyapplicants rush, there is a problem that the content distributor who hasbeen preparing for live distribution in the time zone cannot performlive distribution in that time zone. In order to prevent such a problem,it is possible to use the streaming server based on a reservation systemto insure efficient use of the streaming server to perform livedistribution.

If the use of the steaming server is determined based on a reservationsystem as described above, content creators without a legal reservationmay illegally use the streaming server unless content creators who haveaccessed the streaming server via the Internet, etc. to perform a livedistribution in a certain time zone are authenticated to be users with alegal reservation. This requires authentication processing toauthenticate whether a user has a legal reservation or not and suchauthentication processing must authenticate that the user has the rightto use the relevant live distribution service and at the same time has areservation in the relevant time zone, which would complicate inputoperations, etc. for authentication by the content creators and theprocessing by the providers of services such as live distribution, thatis, the processing on the authenticating side. Moreover, use of atechnique of making a multitude of simultaneous calls to an access pointto access the streaming server above may make the access line to thestreaming server busy, thus preventing the use by content creators witha legal reservation, which may put in danger the continuation of thereservation system.

Such a problem can occur not only with the reservation system of thestreaming server for carrying out a live distribution but also when auser PC uses the functions of a processing server that carries outpredetermined processing other than live distributions via a networksuch as the Internet and a reservation system is adopted taking intoaccount the processing capacity of the processing server and securing ofthe communication path between the both parties, etc.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has been implemented taking into account thesituation described above and it is an object of the present inventionto provide a method of using a server, a server reservation controlapparatus and a program storage medium capable of allowing many users toefficiently use functions of a processing server that performspredetermined processing via a network and at the same time reducinginterference by illegal users without complicated authenticationprocessing or operations.

To solve the problems above, when, in order for a user terminalapparatus to access a processing server that performs predeterminedprocessing via a network to use functions of the processing server, theuser terminal apparatus makes a reservation for the use of theprocessing server via the network to a reservation control apparatusthat controls the reservation situation of the processing server anduses the functions of the processing server based on the reservation,the present invention carries out the following procedure: First, theuser terminal apparatus sends reservation request information includinga desired service time to use the processing server to the reservationcontrol apparatus via the network, and if the reservation for the use ofthe processing server during the desired service time included in thereservation request information is accepted, authentication informationused only for the accepted reservation is created and the reservationsetting information including this authentication information is sentfrom the reservation control apparatus to the user terminal apparatusvia the network. Then, the authentication information included in thereservation setting information is stored in a predetermined storagearea of the user terminal apparatus and when the user terminal apparatusaccesses and uses the processing server based on the reservation, theuser terminal apparatus reads the authentication information stored inthe predetermined storage area and sends it. Then, it is decided whetherthe use of the processing server by the user terminal apparatus shouldbe accepted or not, based on the authentication information sent fromthe user terminal apparatus.

Thus, adopting a reservation system to use the functions of theprocessing server in this way allows many users of user terminalapparatuses to efficiently use the processing server. Furthermore, sinceauthentication information used only for authentication of certainreservations is used to authenticate whether a user has a legalreservation or not, it is possible to authenticate that a user of a userterminal apparatus who has sent the authentication information about thereservation is the user with a legal reservation, which can reducecomplicated authentication processing. Furthermore, the authenticationinformation is stored in the user terminal apparatus, and is read whenthe user terminal apparatus accesses the processing server to be usedfor authentication processing. That is, since the authenticationinformation stored in the storage area is read and sent, the user neednot perform operations such as entering authentication information.Moreover, since the authentication processing is performed based on theauthentication information only sent to the user terminal apparatus thathas made a reservation, it is possible to regulate the use of theprocessing server by users other than those with a legal reservation.

Moreover, when, in order for a user terminal apparatus to access aprocessing server that performs predetermined processing via a networkto use functions of the processing server, the user terminal apparatusmakes a reservation for the use of the processing server via the networkto a reservation control apparatus that controls the reservationsituation of the processing server and uses the functions of theprocessing server based on the reservation, another aspect of thepresent invention carries out the following procedure: First, the userterminal apparatus sends reservation request information including adesired service time to use the processing server to the reservationcontrol apparatus via the network, and if the reservation for the use ofthe processing server during the desired service time included in thereservation request information is accepted, the reservation settinginformation including communication/connection information necessary forthe user terminal apparatus to establish a communication/connection withthe processing server is sent from the reservation control apparatus tothe user terminal apparatus via the network. Then, thecommunication/connection information included in the reservation settinginformation is written and stored in a predetermined storage area of theuser terminal apparatus and when the user terminal apparatus accessesand uses the processing server based on the reservation, the userterminal apparatus reads the stored communication/connection informationand performs processing to establish a communication/connection with theprocessing server based on the read communication/connectioninformation.

Thus, adopting a reservation system to use the functions of theprocessing server in this way allows many users of user terminalapparatuses to efficiently use the processing server. Furthermore,information to establish a communication/connection with the processingserver is sent to the user terminal apparatus of a user with a legalreservation and this information is read to carry out communicationprocessing. Therefore, the user can omit operations of enteringinformation to establish a communication/connection, and the informationto establish a communication/connection with the processing server isread from the storage area and used for processing, that is, theinformation is not distributed in a manner apparent to the eyes ofpeople such as books or display data, thus making it possible to preventthe information from being subjected to illegal processing ofcommunication with the processing server such as interference bymisusing the information.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outlined overall configuration of acontent supply system to which a method of using a server according toan embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a user PC thatreceives a personal casting service from the content supply systemabove.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a configuration example ofappearance of the user PC above.

FIG. 4 is a drawing showing an initial screen at the start of anapplication program by the user PC above.

FIG. 5 is a drawing showing a display screen of the display section ofthe user PC above in picture taking mode.

FIG. 6 is a drawing showing a display screen of the display section ofthe user PC above in upload mode.

FIG. 7 is a drawing showing a display screen of the display section ofthe user PC above in Web check mode.

FIG. 8 is a drawing showing a display screen of the display section ofthe user PC above in live reservation mode.

FIG. 9 is a drawing showing a display screen of the display section ofthe user PC above in live distribution mode.

FIG. 10 is a drawing showing an effect display field in the livedistribution mode above.

FIG. 11 is a drawing showing a display screen during effect settingprocessing in the live distribution mode above.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a serverreservation control apparatus of the content supply system above.

FIG. 13 is a drawing showing the top page of a Web page stored in a harddisk of the live casting server of the server reservation controlapparatus above.

FIG. 14 is a drawing showing a Web page stored in the hard disk of thelive casting server above.

FIG. 15 is a drawing showing a Web page stored in the hard disk of thelive casting server above.

FIG. 16 is a drawing showing a Web page stored in the hard disk of thelive casting server above.

FIG. 17 is a drawing showing a Web page stored in the hard disk of thelive casting server above.

FIG. 18 is a drawing showing the registration content of the reservationdatabase of the server reservation control apparatus above.

FIG. 19 is a sequence flow chart showing the processing operation of theuser PC and the live casting server above during member registration.

FIG. 20 is a drawing showing a display screen of the display sectionabove of the user PC above during the member registration.

FIG. 21 is a sequence flow chart showing the processing operation of theuser PC and the live casting server above during distributionreservation.

FIG. 22 is a drawing showing a display screen shown on the displaysection above of the user PC during said distribution reservation.

FIG. 23 is a drawing showing a display screen shown on the displaysection above of the user PC during said distribution reservation.

FIG. 24 is a drawing showing a display screen shown on the displaysection above of the user PC during the distribution reservation above.

FIG. 25 is a sequence flow chart showing the processing operation of theuser PC and the live casting server above during reconfirmationprocessing in the distribution reservation above.

FIG. 26 is a drawing showing a display screen shown on the displaysection above of the user PC during the reconfirmation processing above.

FIG. 27 is a drawing showing a display screen shown on the displaysection above of the user PC during the reconfirmation processing above.

FIG. 28 is a drawing showing a reservation setting information filecreated by the live casting server above and sent to the user PC duringthe reconfirmation processing above.

FIG. 29 is a drawing showing a display screen shown on the displaysection of the user PC during the reconfirmation processing above.

FIG. 30 is a drawing showing the contents of e-mail sent to an e-mailaddress specified during the reconfirmation processing above.

FIG. 31 is a drawing showing a display screen shown on the displaysection above of the user PC above when a reservation is changed.

FIG. 32 is a drawing showing a display screen shown on the displaysection above of the user PC above when a reservation is changed.

FIG. 33 is a drawing showing a display screen shown on the displaysection above of the user PC above when a reservation is changed.

FIG. 34 is a drawing showing a display screen shown on the displaysection above of the user PC above when a reservation is canceled.

FIG. 35 is a drawing showing a display screen shown on the displaysection above of the user PC above when a reservation is canceled.

FIG. 36 is a drawing showing a display screen shown on the displaysection above of the user PC above when a reservation is confirmed.

FIG. 37 is a sequence flow chart showing the processing operation of thecontent supply system above during live distribution.

FIG. 38 is a drawing showing a display screen of a client PC thatreceives a content supply during the live distribution above.

FIG. 39 is a schematic drawing showing an overall configuration of anetwork system according to a modification of the embodiment above.

FIG. 40 is a schematic perspective view showing an externalconfiguration of a camera-integrated digital cellular phone.

FIG. 41 is a schematic perspective view showing a display section of thecamera-integrated digital cellular phone above when the camera isrotated.

FIG. 42 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of thecamera-integrated digital cellular phone above.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

With reference now to the attached drawings, embodiments of the presentinvention will be explained below.

A. Configuration of Content Supply System

A-1. Outlined Overall System Configuration

First, FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of thecontent supply system 100 that offers a personal casting service usingthe method of using a server according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. This embodiment describes a case where the present inventionis applied to a method of using a streaming server with a function ofcarrying out stream distribution of content such as moving image data,but it is also possible to apply the present invention to methods ofusing a server which carries out other processing functions.

As shown in FIG. 1, this content supply system 10 comprises a user PC(distributor terminal apparatus) 106 connected to the Internet 103 viaan Internet service provider (not shown) and telephone network 104, aserver reservation control center 101 connected to the Internet 103, astreaming server (processing server) 102 and a plurality (3 in thefigure) of client PCs 107 connected to the Internet 103 via a telephoneline (not shown) or dedicated line (not shown). Here, the streamingserver 102 is connected to a dedicated server connection network 108,and when data is sent from the user PC 106 to the streaming server 102during live distribution, which will be described later, the user PC 106connects to an access port of the dedicated server connection network108 using PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) via the telephone network 104.This establishes a communication path between the user PC 106 andstreaming server 102 and the content data can be sent using thiscommunication path. A dedicated line 109 is also laid between thestreaming server 102 and server reservation control center 101 and datais transferred between both parties using the dedicated line 109 in thecase of authentication processing, etc. which will be described later.

In this content supply system 100, the user of the user PC 106 sendscontent data (e.g., video data, etc. taken from music live) taken by adigital camera, etc. to the streaming server 102 in a reserved time zone(e.g., 15:00 to 16:00), while the streaming server 102 performsstream-distribution of the above content data to the client PC 107 thatsent a request. In this way, the content supply system 100 can provide apersonal casting service that implements personal broadcasting such thatcontent data taken by the user of the user PC 106 using a digitalcamera, etc. is received and reproduced by the client PC 107 in realtime.

Furthermore, this content supply system 100 adopts a reservation systemwhereby each user makes a reservation for using or accessing thestreaming server 102 in order to implement a personal casting servicethat allows the user to reliably transmit personal broadcasting in adesired time zone. That is, the user requests the server reservationcontrol center 101 over the Internet 103 for a reservation of a timezone during which the user wants to carry out personal broadcasting,that is, a time zone during which the user (PC) wants to access thestreaming server 102 and use the stream distribution function by thestreaming server 102. Then, when the reservation is permitted by theserver reservation control center 101, the user PC 106 can access thestreaming server 102 in the time zone based on this reservation andperform live distribution.

The content supply system 100 is a system that offers the personalcasting service, which introduces the above-described reservationsystem, and the components of this content supply system 100 will beexplained in detail below.

A-2. User PC

First, the user PC 106 will be explained. In this embodiment, the userPC 106 refers to a PC used to transmit content data by a user who hasacquired the right to become a broadcasting party who creates andtransmits content data after completing a registration procedure, etc.which will be described later in a personal casting service by thecontent supply system 100.

As shown in FIG. 2, the user PC 106 comprises a CPU (central processingunit) 120 that performs various kinds of operation processing andcontrols sections, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 121 used as a workmemory of the CPU 120, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 122 that stores aprogram group read and executed by the CPU 120, a hard disk 123 thatstores a program group read and executed by the CPU 120 such as anoperating system (e.g., “Windows 95/98/2000” (Microsoft Corporation) andapplication programs, etc., a display section 124 such as a liquidcrystal display that displays an image to the user, a display interface125 to display an image corresponding to data supplied from the CPU 120on the display section 124, an operation section 126 such as a keyboard,mouse and rotary dial and operation button which will be described laterused for the user to enter instructions, an operation section interface127 that supplies data indicating instructions entered via the operationsection 126 to the CPU 120, a network interface 128 thattransmits/receives data to/from devices connected to the internet 103(see FIG. 1) and the dedicated server connection network 108 (seeFIG. 1) via a telephone network 104 (see FIG. 1) and a digital videocamera 129 incorporated in the user PC 106. By the way, the hard disk123 is read by/written to the CPU 120 and also used to store movingimage data and various kinds of control data.

Here, FIG. 3 illustrates configuration examples of appearance of theuser PC 106 with the built-in digital video camera 129 above. As shownin FIG. 3(a), the user PC 106 shown in this example comprises, as in thecase of a general notebook personal computer, a display side cabinet 106a provided with a liquid crystal screen 124 a and a keyboard sidecabinet 106 b provided with a keyboard 126 a and both are connected in arelatively pivotable manner by means of a hinge section 106 c.Furthermore, the display side cabinet 106 a is also made relativelypivotable with respect to the keyboard side cabinet 106 b in thedirection indicated by an arrow A in the figure. Furthermore, a rotaryoperation dial 126 b is provided on one side of the display side cabinet106 a. This operation dial 126 b can perform not only a rotationoperation but also a pressing operation.

On one end face of the keyboard side cabinet 106 b are attached a buttoncabinet 106 e with a plurality (4 in the figure) of operation buttons126 c and the above-described digital video camera 129. Here, the buttoncabinet 106 e is fixed to the keyboard side cabinet 106 b asillustrated. On the other hand, the digital video camera 129 issupported at one point on the lateral end face of the keyboard sidecabinet 106 b in a pivotable manner, which allows the digital videocamera 129 to rotate freely in the direction shown by an arrow B in thefigure.

With such a structure, the user PC 106 can be used not only in the modesimilar to a general notebook personal computer shown in FIG. 3(a) butalso in modes shown in FIGS. 3(b) to 3(d). For example, when used in themode shown in FIG. 3(b), the user can hold the user PC 106 to takepictures of the user himself/herself using the digital video camera 129.In this case, since a liquid crystal screen 124 a is provided on theuser side as illustrated, the user can take pictures while checking thevideo. When used in this mode, the keyboard 126 a is located on the sideopposite to the user, and it is difficult for the user to operate thekeyboard correctly. Taking into account this point, operations relatedto picture taking and processing of video, etc. of the digital videocamera 129 (e.g., operations to instruct start and stop of picturetaking, zooming, addition of effects, saving of moving image data andtransmission, etc.) in a processing according to an application programdescribed later can be performed by operating the above-describedoperation dial 126 b and operation buttons 126 c as appropriate.Furthermore, when used in the mode shown in FIG. 3(c), the user can holdthe user PC 106 to take pictures of a target in front while watching theLCD screen 124 a.

Returning to FIG. 2, the user PC 106 is configured to perform variouskinds of processing such as moving image data distribution processingserviced from the above-described content supply system 100,creation/processing of moving image data and WW (World-Wide Web)browsing by the CPU 120 executing an application program stored in theROM 122 and hard disk 123 based on turning ON of a power supply (notshown) and instructions from the user input form the operation section126. Hereinafter, focused on various functions realized by the CPU 120executing the processing according to this application program, thefunctions of the user PC 106 will be explained with reference to thedisplay screen, etc.

First, when the user PC 106 executes the above application program, aninitial screen as shown in FIG. 4 appears on the display section 124under the control of the CPU 120. As shown in the same figure, thisinitial screen shows a large-size main screen display area 40 displayingan image taken by the digital video camera 129, etc. and a small-sizesub image display are 41 displaying a preview of the last image takenwhen the application program was executed previously on the top rightside of the screen. Furthermore, below the sub image displayed area 41 aGUI (Graphical User Interface) to select a mode, type of image (camera),setting and instruction content (operation) is displayed. Byselecting/setting these items as appropriate, the user can select amode, select the type of image such as still screen (STILL) or movingimage (MOVIE), change the settings and enter instructions, etc.

Here, in this application, the user can select from five modes such ascapture mode (mode when “Capture” on the GUI is selected), upload mode(mode when “View/send” on the GUI is selected), Web check mode (modewhen “View Web” on the GUI is selected), live reservation mode (modewhen “To live reservation check” on the GUI is selected) and livedistribution mode (mode when “To live distribution” on the GUI isselected). By the way, the capture mode is selected in the initial statewhen the application program is started.

The capture mode is a mode in which pictures are taken by the digitalvideo camera 129 incorporated in the user PC 106 and when this mode isselected or in the initial state, a screen as shown in FIG. 5(a) isdisplayed under the control of the CPU 120. As shown in the same figure,the display screen in the capture mode shows the main image display area40 and sub image display area 41 in the same way as in theabove-described initial screen (see FIG. 4), and the main image displayarea 40 shows the picture currently being taken and sub image displayarea 41 shows a preview of the last image taken before the currentcapture.

In this mode, too, the above-described GUI is shown below the sub imagedisplay area 41. As shown in FIG. 5(b), the GUI in this mode showsselection items such as “mode”, “camera”, “setting” and “operation”. Theselection item “operation” in this mode includes an item (“capture”) toinstruct a capture of an image and an item to instructconnection/disconnection with the Internet (“net connect/disconnect),etc. and it is possible to select and decide a desired item by rotatingthe operation dial 126 b, moving the focus F (shown with bold line) tothe desired item and then pressing the operation on dial 126 b.

Furthermore, in this capture mode, if a command, etc. which is requiredfor capture (e.g., command to instruct a selection of an effect to begiven to an image) is assigned to the operation button 126 c (see FIG.3) provided on the button cabinet 106 e, the user can perform operationsin the capture mode only through operations of the operation dial 126 band operation buttons 126 c without using the keyboard 126 a (see FIG.3) making it possible to easily perform a capture operation in the modewhen the keyboard 126 a is in a position that makes it difficult tooperate the keyboard as shown in FIG. 3(b) and FIG. 3(c). By the way,the above-described command can be assigned to the operation buttons 126c by default, but in this capture mode and other modes which will beexplained below, it is also possible to allow the user to freely selecta command to be assigned to the operation buttons 126 c for each mode.In this way, the user sets so that commands frequently used in each modeare assigned to the operation buttons 126 c and can thereby reduce thenecessity of operating the keyboard 126 a and improve the operability ineach mode.

The status window SW shown at the bottom of the screen in FIG. 5(a)shows the current condition of the user PC 106 (e.g., the residualamount of the battery and the residual storage space of the hard diskdrive, etc.), processing condition in the selected mode (e.g., data sizeof the image being taken, specified saving destination (hard disk andnetwork, etc.) and information on the command assignment of theoperation buttons 126 c.

Then, the upload mode is a mode in which the image data taken in theabove-described capture mode is displayed or referenced or the imagedata is selected and transmitted to a server (not shown) at apredetermined upload destination connected to the Internet 103 (see FIG.1). When this mode is selected, a screen as shown in FIG. 6(a) isdisplayed on the display section 124 under the control of the CPU 120.As shown in the same figure, the display screen in the upload mode showsa preview area 42, a list display area 43 that shows images taken in atile form (lined vertically in the example in the figure), a GUI, astatus window SW and a transmission capsule icon SC.

As shown in FIG. 6(b), “operation” of the GUI in the upload modeincludes an item to instruct connection/disconnection with the Internet(“connect/disconnect Net”), item to instruct start/end of transmissionof image data (“transmit start/stop”), item to instruct movement of thefocus F to the list display area 43 (“Move focus”), item to instruct aview inside the transmission capsule icon SC, that is, a view of thelist of image data selected to be sent (see “transmission capsule), etc.and it is possible to select a desired item by rotating the operationdial 126 b to move the focus F to the desired item and then pressing theoperation dial 126 b.

Furthermore, in the upload mode, the operation buttons 126 c areassigned commands to instruct replay/stop of a moving image toward thepreview area 42 and display of a still image, etc. Furthermore, thestatus window SW in this mode shows the file name of image data, filesize, format (JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) and MPEG (MotionPicture Experts Group), etc.) and information indicating thetransmission destination currently specified (the name of the server tobe uploaded and its URL (Uniform Resource Locator)).

Here, when an item instructing the move of the focus F to the listdisplay area 43 (“Move focus”) is selected, the focus F moves onto thelist display area 43. When the focus F moves onto the list display area43, the focus F sequentially moves from one listed image to anotheraccording to the rotation operation of the operation dial 126 b. Whenthe user wants to send some image data, the user rotates the operationbutton 126 c and moves the focus F onto the relevant image data. Then,pressing the operation dial 126 b shows a SUBGUI to instruct processingon the image data as shown in FIG. 6(a) and the focus F moves onto anitem of this SUBGUI. As shown in FIG. 6(c), the SUBGUI includesinstruction items such as “Save”, “Delete”, “Preview” and “Enter intotransmission capsule”. Here, when the user rotates the operation dial126 b to move the focus F onto “Enter into transmission capsule” whichis desired processing and presses the operation dial 126 b, the relevantimage data is added to the list of image data to be sent. When the userselects image data to be sent and sends the image data in this way, theuser returns the focus F onto an item of the GUI and selects “transmitstart/stop”. When “transmit start/stop” is selected, the processing oftransmission of the image data selected by the CPU 120 of the user PC106 is executed.

Next, the Web check mode is a mode for connecting to a network such asthe Internet and carrying out browsing. When the Web check mode isselected, a screen as shown in FIG. 7(a) is displayed on the displaysection 124 under the control of the CPU 120. As shown in the samefigure, the Web check mode shows a browser display screen 44 that showsa Web browser, a URL display field 45 that shows URLs entered to displayresources on the browser display screen 44, a GUI and a status windowSW. Here, when the Web check mode is selected, the CPU 120 executesbrowser software stored in the hard disk 123 (e.g., Internet Explorer(Microsoft Corporation) and Netscape Navigator (registered trademark ofNetscape Communications Inc.)) and the display screen is shown on thebrowser display screen 44 by the browser software above.

As shown in FIG. 7(b), the GUI in the Web check mode shows “browsing” toselect an instruction item when browsing and “browsing” shows an item toinstruct a jump to a predetermined Web page (“Jump”) and an item tooperate the browser (e.g., “Next” or “Return”, etc.). “operation” inthis mode includes an item to instruct connection/disconnection with theInternet (“Connect/disconnect Net”), an item to instruct movement of thefocus F to the browser display screen 44 (“Move focus”), etc. and it ispossible to select a desired item by rotating the operation dial 126 bto move the focus F to a desired item and then pressing the operationdial 126 b.

This “Web check” allows the user to perform general browsing processingsuch as entering a URL and performing browsing.

Then, the live reservation mode is a mode to reserve a time zone, etc.to be connected to the server reservation control center 101 (seeFIG. 1) over the Internet 103 and carry out personal broadcasting usingthe above personal casting service. When the live reservation mode isselected, a screen as shown in FIG. 8(a) is displayed on the displaysection 124 under the control of the CPU 120. As shown in the samefigure, the live reservation mode shows the browser display screen 44,URL display field 45, GUI and status window SW in the same way as in theabove Web check mode and a reservation list display area 46 as well.

As shown in FIG. 8(b), “operation” of the GUI in the live reservationmode includes an item to instruct connection/disconnection with theInternet (“connect/disconnect net”) and item to instruct movement of thefocus F to the browser display screen 44 (“Move focus”), etc. the GUI inthis mode shows “browsing” as in the case of the above Web check modeand “browsing” shows an item to instruct a jump to a Web page to make alive reservation (“Reservation jump”) and an item to operate the browser(e.g., “Next” or “Return”, etc.) etc. It is possible for the user toselect a desired item by rotating the operation dial 126 b to move thefocus F to a desired item and then pressing the operation dial 126 b. Bythe way, the Web page to make a live reservation refers to a Web pagethat the live casting server, which will be described later, in theserver registration control center 101 stores in its hard disk.

Here, when the user makes a reservation for live distribution using thepersonal casting service, the user selects and decides the item toinstruct a jump to the Web page to make a reservation for distribution.Then, the CPU 120 accesses the above live casting server over theInternet 103 to make a live reservation and can thereby exchangereservation-related information such as sending reservation requestinformation to the relevant live casting server and downloading thereservation setting information from the live casting server.

The reservation list display area 46 shows a list of contents ofreservations made by the user to the above server reservation controlcenter 101 and displays outlined information such as a reservation timezone, etc. for each reservation. When the user rotates the operationdial 126 b to move the focus F onto the reservation list display area46, presses the operation dial 126 b and thereby selects the item on thereservation list display area 46 which shows the desired reservationoutlined information, then the CPU 120 controls such as jumping to theWeb page to check the reservation of the live casting server of theabove server reservation control center 101. Details about thereservation-related processing between the user PC 106 and serverreservation control center 101 will be described later.

Then, the live distribution mode is a mode for connecting to thestreaming server 102 (see FIG. 1) via the telephone network 104 anddedicated server connection network 108 and transmitting content datasuch as moving image data, etc. taken by the digital video camera 129 tothe streaming server 102 in real time and the content data sent in thismode is stream-distributed by the streaming server 102 to the client PC107 that sent a request. This allows the user to distribute personalbroadcasting in real time.

When such a live distribution mode is selected, a screen as shown inFIG. 9(a) appears on the display section 124 under the control of theCPU 120. As shown in the same figure, the live reservation mode shows aneffect display field 48, a preview screen 47 that displays an image tobe sent to the streaming server 102, that is, an image which is theimage taken by the digital video camera 129 with predetermined effects,etc. added, the GUI and status window SW.

The status window SW in the live distribution mode shows on-airinformation that indicates that distribution is in progress,distribution elapsed time information indicating the elapsed time afterdistribution is started, time information on the service provider side,time information on the user PC 106 side, reserved time zone informationthat indicates reservation start time and reservation end time, imagesize information, bit rate information indicating the distribution datatransmission rate (bit rate), distributed image data title nameinformation, connection destination information indicating the connectedstreaming server 102 and its channel and audience number informationindicating the number of clients who receive content datastream-distributed by the streaming server 102, etc.

As shown in FIG. 9(b), “operation” of the GUI in the live distributionmode includes an item to instruct connection/disconnection with theInternet (“Connect/disconnect Net”), an item to instruct the start/endof live distribution (“Start/finish distribution”), an effect settingitem to set effects shown in the effect display field 48 (“Set effect”),an item to instruct the movement of the focus F to the effect displayfield 48 (“Move focus”), etc. and it is possible to select a desireditem by rotating the operation dial 126 b to move the focus F to adesired item and pressing the operation dial 126 b.

Here, when the user selects and decides an item to instruct thestart/end of live distribution, the CPU 120 connects to the streamingserver 102 via the telephone network 104 and dedicated server connectionnetwork 108 according to the reservation setting information suppliedfrom the live casting server in the above live reservation mode. Then,when the connection with the streaming server 102 is established, theCPU 120 sends moving image data taken by the digital video camera 129 tothe streaming server 102 in real time according to the content (e.g.,data transfer rate, etc.) set in the above reservation settinginformation. The processing of communication/connection with thestreaming server 102 and moving image data transmission processing, etc.after communication/connection will be described later in detail.

As shown in FIG. 10, the effect display field 48 in the livedistribution mode displays effect names in order in the verticaldirection for each of button A and button B (marked “A” and “B” on theupper surface of the button, etc.) in the operation buttons 126 c. Here,the topmost effect name is the effect name currently selected. In theexample of the figure, button A shows selection candidates such as“Heart pattern display”, “None”, “clapping sound” . . . starting fromthe top. These are used to instruct assignment of an effectcorresponding to the effect name enclosed by the focus F that relativelymoves when the user rotates the operation dial 126 b, that is, thecurrently selected effect name shown at the top and when the userpresses the button A in the operation buttons 126 c, the effectcorresponding to the effect name selected and enclosed by focus F isadded to the image taken by the digital video camera 129. For example,in the figure, when button A is pressed, processing of adding a clappingsound which is the effect corresponding to the “Clapping sound” to themoving image data taken by the digital video camera 129 is executed.That the above focus F moves relatively means that the operation of therotary dial 126 b does not cause the focus F to move but causes thedisplay string of the effect name to scroll and as a result the focus Fmoves on the “effect name” displayed on the display string.

Button B shows an effect name “Title impose” currently enclosed by thefocus F, that is, selected band below this shows effect names such as“BGM1”, “Monochrome image”, “Title impose” . . . sequentially startingfrom the top. These are used to instruct that an effect corresponding tothe effect name enclosed by the focus F be added and by the userpressing the button B in the operation buttons 126 c, the effectcorresponding to the effect name enclosed by the focus F is added to theimage taken by the digital video camera 129. For example, in the figure,when button B is pressed, processing of superimposing the title namewhich is the effect corresponding to “Title impose” is executed on themoving image data taken by the digital video camera 129. Here, theeffect processing corresponding to button A is the addition of “clappingsound” which is processing temporarily added, while the effectprocessing corresponding to button B is processing added continuously.Therefore, a toggle button is used as button B in the operation buttons126 c in the user PC 106 and once pressed, effect adding processing suchas “monochrome image”, etc. is continued until the button is pressed thenext time.

Furthermore, a preset effect name preset by the user is shown to theright of the effect names corresponding to button B on the screen. Theeffect shown here is added continuously unless the effect to be presetis changed in the effect setting, which will be described later,irrespective of button operations. In the example in the figure,“Date/time” is set and in this case, the date/time is alwayssuperimposed in the moving image data to be distributed.

The above effect processing is implemented assuming that livedistribution will be performed, that is, moving image data taken by thedigital video camera 129 will be sent in real time. That is, when livedistribution is performed, the user PC 106 sends images taken in realtime and the operation when adding effects, etc. to the images taken isrequired to be simple, and therefore it is designed that processing canbe executed by a single operation of pressing button A or button B asdescribed above. However, while it is possible to instruct theprocessing of adding an effect by a single operation of pressing buttonA or button B, when button A or button B is depressed, the processing ofthe effect corresponding to the effect name enclosed by the focus F inthe effect display field 48 is executed. Therefore, if the effect nameand its display sequence shown in the effect display field 48 do notmatch the intention of the user, the amount that the focus F must bemoved increases relatively to add the desired effect, which will takemuch time to rotate the operation dial 126 b, preventing the user fromadding the desired effect at desired timing.

Thus, selecting “Set effect” from the GUI above (see FIG. 9(b)) in thelive distribution mode makes it possible to set what effect from amongmany effects provided beforehand should be displayed in the above effectfield 48 in what order. Here, FIG. 11 shows a screen displayed on thedisplay section 124 when “Set effect” (see FIG. 9(b)) of the above GUIis selected. As shown in (a), (b) and (c) of the same figure, threesetting screens, button A, button B and preset button, are provided. Thescreen to perform the effect setting corresponding to button A in FIG.11(a) shows a button A effect list field 50 a that lists many effectnames provided and to be temporarily assigned, that is, effect namescorresponding to button A on the left side of the screen and aregistration list field 52 to be displayed in the above effect displayfield 48 on the right side of the screen. The registration list field 52displays button A registration list field 52 a, button B registrationlist field 52 b and preset registration field 52 c. On the button Asetting screen, the display colors of the button B registration listfield 52 b and the preset registration field 52 c are different from thedisplay color of button A registration list field 52 a, which allows theuser to easily recognize the currently settable registration field. Inthe button A effect list field 50 a, the user can scroll up and downmany provided and executable effect names for effect processing.

On such a display screen, the user selects an effect to be displayed inthe effect display field 48 from among the effects displayed in thebutton A effect list field 50 a and drags the selected effect into thebutton A registration list field 52 a. Thus, the user can make a settingin such a way that desired effects corresponding to button A aredisplayed in the effect display field 48 in a desired order.

When effects corresponding to button B are set, the screen shown in FIG.11(b) is displayed. On the right side of this screen, a button B effectlist 50 b that displays many effect names provided and consecutivelyadded, that is, effect names corresponding to button B is displayed. Inthe button B effect list Sob, the user can scroll up and down manyprovided and executable effect names for effect processing.

On such a display screen, the user selects an effect to be displayed inthe effect display field 48 from among the effects displayed in thebutton B effect list field 50 b and drags the selected effect into thebutton B registration list field 52 b. Thus, the user can make a settingin such a way that desired effects corresponding to button B aredisplayed in the effect display field 48 in a desired order.

When preset effects are set, the screen shown in FIG. 11(c) isdisplayed. On the right side of this screen, a preset effect list 50 cthat displays many effect names provided and consecutively added isdisplayed. In this preset effect list 50 c, the user can scroll up anddown many provided and executable effect names for effect processing.

On such a display screen, the user selects an effect to be displayed inthe effect display field 48 from among the effects displayed in thepreset effect list field 50 c and drags the selected effect into thepreset registration list field 52 c. Thus, the user can set preseteffects.

When carrying out live distribution, the user generally has anestablished concept of the types of effects to be added, timing andorder of adding those effects, etc. Therefore, if a setting is made withconsideration given to the type of effects to be added and order inwhich effects are added based on the user's concept, it is possible toperform effect processing that will reproduce the user's concept morefaithfully through simple operations in live distribution.

The user PC 106 can store an application program provided with the fivefunctions of the capture mode, upload mode, Web check mode, livereservation mode and live distribution mode as described above in thehard disk 123 and execute the above processing function. In addition,the user PC 106 also stores a program to execute processing forautomatically incorporating a reservation setting information file,which will be described later, when a reservation for live distributionis made and a program to execute processing for communication/connectionwith the streaming server 102. The functions obtained by executing theseprograms will be described in details later.

A-3. Server Reservation Control Apparatus

As described above, when the user PC 106 performs live distribution as abroadcaster, it is necessary to make a reservation for use of thestreaming server 102 in the time zone for carrying out live distributionin a personal casting service provided from the content supply system100. Next, the server reservation control center 101 on the serviceprovider side who controls the reservation for use of the streamingserver 102 will be explained with reference to FIG. 12.

As shown in the same figure, the server reservation control center 101comprises a live casting server 150, a reservation database 151, a userdatabase 152, an NTP (Network Time Protocol) server 153, a networkinterface 154 and a database server 155, all of which are mutuallyconnected to a LAN (Local Area Network). Here, each component above ofthe server reservation control center 101 exchanges various kinds ofdata with the user PC 106 and client PC 107 connected to the Internet103 via the network interface 154 and the streaming server 102 connectedto a dedicated line 109 (see FIG. 1).

The live casting server 150 is a server that performs processing tocontrol the overall service such as live distribution reservationprocessing, billing processing, service member registration processingin a personal casting service. The live casting server 150 stores Webpages for registration for the user to acquire the right to receive thisservice, for reservation reception to receive the reservation from theuser, for reservation confirmation for the user to confirm or change thereservation and for referencing a program table to reference programtable, etc. live-distributed to the client PC 107 in the hard disk andupon receipt of a request from the user PC 106 or client PC 107, theuser PC 106 or client PC 107 is allowed to browse the Web pagecorresponding to this request. The Web page provided for the livecasting server 150 will be explained with reference to the displayscreen displayed on the browser screen on the PC side that requested thebrowsing of the relevant Web page.

Here, when using a PC connectable to the Internet 103 such as the userPC 106 and client PC 107, the user enters a URL to identify the top page(homepage) of the Web page of the live casting server 150 and makes arequest for browsing, FIG. 13 shows a Web page display screen thatappears on the requesting PC side. By the way, when requesting thebrowsing of the top page of the Web page of the live casting server 150,there is also another method of jumping to the relevant page by clickingon a link button on another homepage in addition to the method ofentering the URL as shown above.

As shown in FIG. 13, this homepage shows link buttons such as “Memberregistration”, “What is personal casting TV?”, “Today's live”, “Programguide”, “My channel”, “Live distribution reservation”, “Program pickup”,“Image Station”, in addition to the fields to enter a user ID andpassword to log in. When these link buttons are clicked, a Web pagehyper-linked to each link button is sent to the PC side and displayed.

When “Member registration” is clicked, a Web page to register memberseligible to the relevant personal casting service appears on the displayscreen on the PC side, which will be described in detail later.

Then, when “What is personal casting TV?” is clicked, a screen as shownin FIG. 14 appears on the display screen on the PC side. As shown in thesame figure, this Web page screen shows a description urging memberregistration of the personal casting service and a link button “Toregistration page” to jump to the above “Member registration” Web page.Moreover, this display screen contains outlined descriptions of thepersonal casting service and processing procedure, etc.

Then, when “Today's live” is clicked, a screen as shown in FIG. 15appears on the display screen on the PC side. As shown in the samefigure, this Web page screen shows live programs to be distributed todayand shows the current time on the service provider side (a reservationis executed based on this time) at the top and a list of information ofitems such as distribution times, title, distributor and outline, etc.of a special program and a private program to be distributed today below(the example in the figure describes the names of items displayed, butthe contents of the above items (distributor name and title name, etc.)are actually displayed)). Here, the “special program” means contentsupplied by a company and the “private program” means content suppliedby an individual user such as the user PC 106. Furthermore, a programdescribed as “On-demand” instead of distribution time is notlive-distributed but an on-demand distribution program for whichdistribution data is stored on the live casting server 150 sidebeforehand and distributed at the request of the client PC 107, etc.Furthermore, “Capacity” in a private program is information indicatingthe capacity of the number of clients who can receive a distribution ofthe content of the relevant program and “OPEN” and “CLOSE” areinformation indicating whether the content can be distributed at presentat the request of the client or not in consideration of restrictionssuch as the above capacity (“OPEN”: distributable, “CLOSE”: notdistributable).

Here, “Title” in the list of the program above is a link button and whenthis button is clicked, detailed information of the live program of theclicked “Title” appears as shown in FIG. 16. On this screen, if the userenters a correct password and clicks on the “Replay” button 175 duringthe time for distribution of the relevant program, a distributionrequest for the relevant live program is sent to the streaming server102 over the Internet 103. This allows the client PC 107 that has sentthe distribution request to receive a stream distribution of therelevant live program content by the streaming server 102 and reproducethis in real time. By the way, reproducing the contentstreaming-distributed by the streaming server 102 in real time requiresreplay software to perform this real-time replay processing (e.g., “Realplayer” (Real Networks Co., Ltd.) and “Windows Media Player” (MicrosoftCorporation), etc.). Therefore, if the PC that sends a distributionrequest does not store the above replay software, the “Replay software”button 176 is clicked. This makes it possible to download the aboveReplay software to the PC and reproduce and view the contentstream-distributed by the streaming server 102 in real time by therelevant PC.

Then, when “Program guide” is clicked, a screen as shown in FIG. 17appears on the display screen on the PC side. As shown in the samefigure, this Web page screen shows a monthly calendar including thecurrent day and shows a list of programs distributed on the dateindicated by the outline characters on a colored background of thecalendar. Here, the list of programs displayed is the same as “Today'slive” described above (see FIG. 16). On this display screen, clicking ona desired date on the monthly calendar above shows a program list forthe relevant date. The screens displayed for “Today's live” and “Programguide” are not limited to those shown in FIG. 16 and FIG. 17, but can beprovided in a display format such as a TV column of a newspaper in whicha matrix-like program display column is provided showing the time on thevertical axis and a channel on the horizontal axis and a title name,content and distributor name, etc. are displayed in the relevant matrix,and this display format can be set arbitrarily.

Then, “My channel” is a web page provided for each user who is grantedthe right to become the transmitter of live distribution (userregistered as a premium member, which will be described later) and when“My channel” is clicked, a Web page, etc. to confirm the reservationcontent of live distribution at the actual point in time is displayed.Furthermore, when “Live distribution reservation” is clicked, a Web pageto make a reservation for live distribution is displayed, but this willbe described in detail later. By the way, users who are not registeredas members have no user ID or password, and cannot perform log inprocessing such as entering the above-described user ID and password.When “My channel” or “Live distribution reservation” is clicked on thePC of the user who has not proceeded with such log in processing, a jumpis not made to the corresponding Web page but to “What is personalcasting TV?” where the user is urged to register as a member.

Then, “Program pick up” is a Web page to present a program, etc.recommended by the service provider and when this is clicked, detailedinformation (see FIG. 16) on the program recommended by the serviceprovider appears.

The live casting server 15 stores the above-described Web pages in itshard disk.

Returning to FIG. 12, the reservation database 151 stores information onthe reservation situation of live distribution and billing resultingfrom the reservation. As shown in FIG. 18, the reservation database 151stores the reservation content information including the reservationtime zone, channel used, band used (bps (bit per second)), etc. forevery reservation in association with user ID to identify the user,billing flag information to indicate whether the reservation isestablished and billing is possible at that point in time or not andreservation ID used for authentication when the relevant reservation iscompleted. Each of these information pieces will be written duringreservation processing, etc. by the live casting server 150 which willbe described later and each information piece stored in theauthentication processing by the database server 155 which will bedescribed later will be referenced.

The user database 152 stores information on registered users who havethe right to receive the personal casting service and stores informationsuch as the name, user ID, password, e-mail address, address, telephonenumber (cellular phone and facsimile number), credit card number andexpiration date of the credit card for billing for every registereduser. Each of these information pieces will be written during memberregistration processing by the live casting server 150 which will bedescribed later and referenced during reservation processing by the livecasting server 150 which will be described later.

The NTP server 153 controls time information in the apparatus on theservice provider side such as this server reservation control center 101and streaming server 102 in a centralized manner and the live castingserver 150 and streaming server 102 acquire the time information fromthe NTP server 153 and control the live distribution start time and endtime based on the acquired time information. This reflects considerationthat a service like live distribution must operate under precise timecontrol and unifying the reference times on the service provider sideprevents the server reservation control center 101, which is theapparatus on the service provider side, and the streaming server 102from operating using mutually different times as reference. Furthermore,the time of the user PC 106, which is the user side apparatus, may bedifferent from the time of the service provider, and if the user of theuser PC 106 fails to recognize this time difference, there may be adifference between the start time and end time of live distributionspecified by the service provider and the start time and end time oflive distribution recognized by the user. Therefore, the reservationprocessing by the live casting server 150 notifies the user PC 106 ofthis time difference, and this time difference is calculated based onthe time information acquired by the live casting server 150 from theNTP server 153.

When the user PC 106 or another illegal PC sends a connection request touse the streaming server 102 to the access port of the dedicated serverconnection network 108, the database server 155 receives the requestfrom an access server (not shown) of the dedicated server connectionnetwork 108 and performs authentication processing as to whether theaccessing PC is a PC that has made a valid reservation (that is, user PC106) or not. If that PC has been authenticated to be the valid PC in theabove authentication processing, a communication/connection between thestreaming server 102 and the user PC 106 is established and the user PC106 requests the streaming server 102 to execute stream distributionprocessing. In this case, the streaming server 102 requests the databaseserver 155 for authentication processing to authenticate whether the PCsending the distribution request is a PC that has a valid reservation ornot. Upon reception of such a request from the streaming server 102, thedatabase server 155 performs authentication processing to authenticatewhether it is a PC that has a valid reservation or not. Thisauthentication processing is performed by referencing the reservationdatabase 151. The two kinds of authentication processing above will beexplained in detail later.

A-4. Streaming Server

Then, the streaming server 102 shown in FIG. 1 receives content datasuch as moving image data sent from the user PC 106 having theabove-described valid reservation via the dedicated server connectionnetwork 108, etc. and performs a stream distribution of this contentdata to the client PC 107 that has sent a distribution request over theInternet 103.

The streaming server 102 can perform a stream distribution of aplurality of content simultaneously. That is, the streaming server 102has a configuration of having a plurality of channels so that aplurality of distributors in the same time zone can perform livedistribution of content using the streaming server 102. This streamingserver 102 has a preset number of people who can receive distribution,transmission band (64 kbps or 28.8 kbps, etc.) and service fee, etc. forevery channel and the user who receive content distribution using thestreaming server 102 can select a channel to be reserved taking intoaccount the above settings.

Furthermore, the streaming server 102 performs stream distributionprocessing of content sent from the live distributor such as the user PC106 as described above and stores commercial content, etc. distributedduring a free time zone with no reservation or intervals betweenprograms and performs distribution processing of commercial content inthe free time zones above.

Furthermore, the streaming server 102 controls the distribution timezone and restriction on the number of client PCs 107 to which content isdistributed according to the reservation content permitted to the userPC 106 by the server reservation control center 101. This processingwill be described later.

A-5. Communication Path Between Streaming Server and User PC for LiveDistribution

As shown in FIG. 1, the streaming server 102 is connected to thededicated server connection network 108 and when live distributiondescribed above is performed, the user PC 106 is connected to thestreaming server 102 via the telephone network 104 and dedicated serverconnection network 108. The dedicated server connection network 108 is adedicated network provided to carry out live distribution in thepersonal casting service supplied by this content supply system 100.

Here, while communication/connection between the streaming server 102and user PC 106 is possible via the Internet 103, this content supplysystem 100 provides the dedicated server connection network 108 to beconnected to the streaming server 102 in order to secure thetransmission path and transmission band of content data from the user PC106 to the streaming server 102. Such a dedicated network is used forthe following reasons. In order for the user PC 106 to be connected tothe Internet 103, the user PC 106 needs to be connected to an Internetservice provider (hereinafter referred to as “ISP”) with which the userPC 106 has contracted via the telephone network 104. Such an ISPreceives connections not only from registered members of this personalcasting service but also from PCs of a multitude of Internet users.Therefore, when a multitude of Internet users connects to the ISP andInternet 103, the user PC 106 can no longer secure a transmission bandnecessary for live distribution. Moreover, the user PC 106 may not beable to be connected to the ISP for reasons such as that the line isbusy. Data transmission using the Internet 103 has the problem of adeteriorated connection environment as described above, while carryingout live distribution requires a communication path with the streamingserver 102 at a desired bit rate to be secured within a desired time andthe above problem prevents a normal service from being supplied.Therefore, the content supply system 100 prevents the above problem byproviding the dedicated server connection network 108 without using theInternet 103.

Here, the dedicated server connection network 108 is provided with amultitude of lines to be connected to the streaming server 102. Thenumber of lines provided for the dedicated server connection network 108is greater than the maximum number of users connected to the streamingserver 102 in the same time zone (e.g., if the maximum number of usersfor whom connection is permitted is 10, the number of lines is 20). Thisis for the following reason. As described above, the access server ofthe dedicated server connection network 108 requests the database server155 (see FIG. 12) to perform authentication processing on the PC thatrequests for a connection and authenticate whether the PC that requestsfor the connection has a legal reservation or not. If the PC is judgedto have no legal reservation in this authentication processing, the callfrom the PC requesting for the connection is immediately cut. Therefore,while any illegal PC cannot use the line of the dedicated serverconnection network 108, one line remains busy while the aboveauthentication processing is in progress. For this reason, if themaximum number of users allowed to connect is equal to the number oflines provided, an illegal user may make a multitude of callssimultaneously to the access port of the dedicated server connectionnetwork 108 for the purpose of interference with the personal castingservice, etc., which will prevent PCs of users with a legal reservationfrom connecting. Therefore, providing lines exceeding the maximum numberof users as shown above reduces the possibility that the service will beinterfered by illegal users.

Furthermore, this personal casting service allows connection to thestreaming server 102 a predetermined time before the distribution isstarted based on the reservation, making it possible to completeconnection processing such as authentication before the time at whichthe distribution starts and perform live distribution at the time atwhich the reserved distribution starts. Therefore, if reservation timesof different users are continuous, the following problem may occur. Thatis, the connection of a user receiving a distribution who reserved aprevious time zone may overlap the connection by the user who reserved aposterior time zone after a lapse of time after a predetermined time atwhich distribution is started and lines corresponding to the maximumnumber of users who can receive distribution alone are not enough. Thus,providing lines twice the maximum number of users above can even handlethe case above where the connection by the user who reserves thepreceding time zone overlaps the connection by the user who reserves theposterior time zone.

Furthermore, the dedicated server connection network 108 to be connectedto the streaming server 102 can provide not only access ports for anetwork (e.g., public switched telephone network) of one carrier butalso access ports accessible from networks (e.g., ISDN (IntegratedServices Digital Network) or mobile telephone network) of a plurality ofcarriers. In this case, the user PC 106 selects a carrier to beconnected, calls an access port corresponding to the network of therelevant carrier and establishes a communication/connection with thestreaming server 102 via the dedicated server connection network 108.

A-6. Client PC

As described above, the content data sent from the user PC 106 to thestreaming server 102 in real time is stream-distributed over theInternet 103 to the client PC 107 that sent a request for distributionto the streaming server 102. The client PC 107 can send a distributionrequest from the Web page (see FIG. 16) of the above-described livecasting server 150 and also directly send a distribution request to thestreaming server 102 by entering the URL of the streaming server 102.This embodiments refers to the PC that sends a distribution request tothe streaming server 102 and receives streaming distribution from thestreaming server 102 and these client PCs 107 store an applicationprogram to reproduce stream-distributed content data in real time (e.g.,“Real player” (Real Networks Co. Ltd.), “Windows Media Player”(Microsoft Corporation), etc.) and can replay and view the distributedcontent data in real time by executing the application program whendistribution is received.

B. Operation of Content Supply System

Then, the various processing operations of the content supply system 100in the above configuration to implement a live casting service will beexplained.

B-1. Member Registration

First, when the user of the user PC 106 performs a live distributionusing the personal casting service, it is necessary to apply for memberregistration to the live casting server 150 of the server reservationcontrol center 101 to acquire the right to perform a live distributionunder this service. Here, FIG. 19 shows a sequence flow chart of theprocessing operation of the user PC 106 and live casting server 150 whenapplying for this member registration. As shown in the same figure, toapply for member registration, the user PC 106 connects to the Internet103 and sends a request for browsing a Web page to the live castingserver 150 (see FIG. 12) (step Sa1). Here, when the user PC 106 connectsto the Internet 103, power to the user PC 106 is turned on first andthen the above-described application program is started. Then, by theuser selecting the Web check mode, the screen as shown in FIG. 7(a) isdisplayed on the display section 124. In this Web check mode, the userenters a URL to identify the Web page of the live casting server 150 andrequests for browsing.

When the user PC 106 sends a request for browsing a Web page to the livecasting server 150 in this way, the live casting server 150 sends theWeb page via the Internet 103 to the user PC 106 (step Sa2). The user PC106 that has received the Web page sent displays the Web page on thebrowser display screen 44 (step Sa3).

In the case of such a browsing request or Web page transmission, theuser PC 106 and live casting server 150 carry out the followingoperation and processing. First, when the user PC 106 enters the URL ofthe live casting server 150 and sends a browsing request, the browserdisplay screen 44 displays the top page of the Web page stored in thelive casting server 150 as shown in FIG. 13. Here, the user clicks on“Member registration” to apply for member registration. This makes theCPU 120 of the user PC 106 send a request for browsing the Web page toapply for member registration to the live casting server 150 via theInternet 103. Then, the live casting server 150 sends the memberregistration Web page and upon reception of this, the CPU 120 of theuser PC 106 displays the member registration screen as shown in FIG. 20on the browser display screen 44.

As shown in FIG. 20, the member registration screen shows the names ofthe items to be entered for member registration and the entry field toenter the relevant item. Here, this personal casting service providesthe above described function of the client PC 107, that is, two kinds ofmember registration, a general member who receives a service ofreceiving content live-distributed by the streaming server 102 and apremium member who can use the service as a distributor who performs alive distribution in addition to the service of receiving the abovecontent and the member registration screen shows an input field 210 forgeneral/premium members and an input field 211 only for a premiummember.

In this display screen, the user who registers only as a general membersuch as the user of the client PC 107 enters items of the input field210. Here, the member registration input screen displays a Cancel button212 that cancels the content entered and an Enter button 213 thatinstructs the content entered to be registered and when the user clickson the Enter button 213, the CPU 120 instructs the content entered inthe input field 210 to be sent as registration information to the livecasting server 150 via the Internet 103.

On the other hand, when the user registers as a premium member, the userchecks the checkbox and enters items of the input field 210 and inputfield 211. When the user completes entries of these items and clicks onthe Enter button 213, the CPU 120 of the user PC 106 creates aregistration information file of the same content as that entered in theabove member registration input screen and sends this to the livecasting server 150 via the Internet 103 (step sA4) and at the same timewrites and stores the registration information file in the hard disk 123in the user PC 106.

The live casting server 150 receives the registration information filecreated according to the content entered of the user of the user PC 106over the Internet 103 as shown above, checks the content of theregistration information file received and decides whether or not toallow it to be registered (step Sa5). The processing content here is asfollows. First, when there is no information on a certain item, that is,the user has entered nothing in that item, etc., this is informed to theuser PC 106 prompting for a reentry. Furthermore, the live castingserver 150 accesses a credit check server of a credit company via theInternet 103 to check whether the credit card in the registrationinformation file is valid or not and permits the registration only whenthe credit card is valid.

When the registration is permitted, the live casting server 150 writesthe information of the items in the registration information file in theuser database 152 and in this way carries out registration processing(step Sa6). Furthermore, in the premium member registration processing,the live casting server 150 creates a “My channel” Web pagecorresponding to the relevant registered user and stores in the harddisk.

When this registration processing is completed, the live casting server150 notifies the user PC 106 over the Internet 103 that the registrationprocessing has been completed (step Sa1) and this completes the memberregistration processing.

B-2. Distribution Reservation

When the above described member registration processing is completed,the user of the user PC 106 can become the distributor who carries out alive distribution using the personal casting service and makes areservation for a distribution to the live casting server 150 toactually carry out the live distribution. In this personal castingservice, a reservation is established by the user making a reservationfor registration to the live casting server 150 and reconfirming thereservation to the live casting server 150 by a predetermined timebefore the reserved live distribution time (e.g., 6 hours before).Obliging the user who made the reservation to reconfirm the reservationpromotes the fulfillment and establishment of reservations and reducesfictitious reservations. Furthermore, this personal casting service setsa maximum number of frames (e.g., 1 frame corresponds to 10 minutes)that a registered user can reserve a month and this prevents a few usersfrom monopolizing this service.

B-2-1. Reservation Registration

Hereinafter, the processing operation of the user PC 106 and the livecasting server 150 when reservation registration is performed with sucha distribution reservation will be explained with reference to FIG. 21that shows a sequence flow chart of the processing operation and displayscreens, etc. of the user PC 106.

As shown in the same figure, when a distribution reservation is made,the user turns on the power to the user PC 106 and starts theapplication program above. Then, the user selects the live reservationmode and opens the screen shown in FIG. 8(a) on the display section 124.In this live reservation mode, the user operates the operation dial 126b, etc. to select/determine “Reservation jump”, which is a selectionitem of the GUI. This allows the CPU 120 of the user PC 106 to performprocessing of connection to the Internet 103 and requests for browsingof the Web page to make a reservation for a distribution (Web page when“Live distribution reservation” in FIG. 13 is clicked) to the livecasting server 150 (step Sb1). In this way, the user PC 106 can requestfor browsing of the Web page to make a reservation for a distribution byselecting/determining “Reservation jump” using the function provided bythe application program above, but the user PC 106 can also request forbrowsing of the Web page by entering a URL. More specifically, the userPC 106 can request for browsing of the Web page by entering a URL andrequesting for browsing of the homepage shown in FIG. 13, logging in byentering the user ID and password and clicking on the link button of“Live distribution reservation”.

Once the user PC 106 requests for browsing the Web page for distributionreservation to the live casting server 150, the Web page is sent fromthe live casting server 150 to the user PC 106 over the Internet 103(step Sb2). The user PC 106 that has received the Web page sent showsthe Web page on the browser display screen 44 (step Sb3).

Here, FIG. 22 shows a distribution reservation Web page displayed on thebrowser display screen 44. As shown in the same figure, this displayscreen shows a monthly calendar field 220, a reservation situationdisplay field 221 that indicates the reservation situation on the dateexpressed in outline characters on a colored background on the calendar,a reservation input field 222 that shows items to be entered for theuser to make a reservation and the input field, a reservation button 223to instruct an application for a reservation and a cancel button 224 tocancel the input content of the reservation input field 222.

On this display screen, the user clicks on a desired date of reservationin the monthly calendar field 220. This allows the CPU 120 of the userPC 106 to instruct to display the clicked date in outline characters ona colored background on the calendar and request the live casting server150 over the Internet 103 for the data to display the reservationsituation on the relevant date. Upon reception of this request, the livecasting server 150 creates the data to display the reservation situationon the relevant date at the point in time by referencing the registeredcontent of the reservation database 151 and sends the data to displaythe reservation situation on the requested date to the user PC 106 overthe Internet 103. The CPU 120 of the user PC 106 displays thereservation situation display field 221 based on this data.

As illustrated, the reservation situation display field 221 displays thecapacity of distribution, transmission band used, service fee,reservation situation per time (“Free” or “Reserved”) for every channeland the user determines the channel and time zone, etc. and enters itemsof the reservation input field 222 with reference to this reservationsituation display field 221. Here, the capacity of distribution,transmission band used and service fee above are set for each channelbeforehand and the user of the user PC 106, who is the contentdistributor, can select a channel that matches the desired service feeand capacity, etc. by referencing the preset information for eachchannel displayed in the reservation situation display field 221.

Here, the items to be entered in the reservation input field 222 are“channel” to select a channel to be used, “reservation date/time” tospecify the date/time of reservation, “disclosure level”, “title” toenter the title name of the content, “genre” to enter the genre to whichthe content belong, “e-mail disclosure” to select whether or not todisclose the e-mail address of the content provider, “WEB disclosure” toselect whether or not to disclose the URL of the Web page of the contentprovider, “password” to enter a password, “friend list”, “outline” towrite an outline of the content in up to a predetermined number ofcharacters (e.g., 20 characters) and “detail” to write the detail of thecontent in up to a predetermined number of characters (e.g., 200characters).

The input item “disclosure level” in the reservation input field 222 isthe item for the user who is the content provider to specify thedisclosure level of the content supply distributed based on thisreservation, that is, restrictions on the content receivers and it ispossible to specify one of three levels “Public”, “Password” and“Secret” here.

“Public” specifies that the content is totally disclosed and when“Public” is specified, users who have registered as general members canreceive the content through content distribution based on a relevantreservation (however, should be within the capacity).

“Password” restricts users who can receive the content supply based on arelevant reservation and is the disclosure level that only allows theusers who have entered a valid password to receive content distribution.When the user selects “Password”, the user needs to have already entereda password to be used at this time.

Then, “Secret” is also the disclosure level that allows the users whohave entered a valid password to receive content distribution as in thecase of “Password”. When the user selects “Secret”, too, the user needsto have already entered a password to be used. Here, when “Password” or“Secret” is selected, information on the distribution time of therelevant program and the password, etc. is notified to the e-mailaddresses specified in “friend list” which will be described later.

Furthermore, “Password” and “Secret” are the same in that both allow thecontent to be supplied to only specific users, but different in thatwhen “Password” is selected, the program based on this reservation isincluded in the Web pages of “Today's live” and “Program guide” above,while in the case of “Secret”, the program is not shown on the above Webpages and the fact that the content is supplied itself is not disclosed.When “Secret” is selected, the fact that the content is distributed isnotified only to those who have e-mail addresses included in the “Friendlist” which will be described later.

The user can select any one of the three disclosure levels “Public”,“Password” or “Secret” above taking into account the content to bedistributed. For example, when the user wants to perform a contentdistribution to a specific few people, it is desirable to select achannel with small capacity (low fee) from the economical standpoint,but if this is fully disclosed, when a distribution request is receivedfrom a person other than the above specific people, the above specificpeople cannot receive the content distribution because of the capacityrestriction. Therefore, in this case, selecting “Password” or “Secret”makes it possible to perform content distribution to specific peoplereliably and economically.

The input item “Friend list” in the reservation input field 222 is thefield to enter e-mail addresses of people who the user of the user PC106 wants to be notified that the content will be distributed in a timezone and with a channel based on the relevant reservation. Here, thelive casting server 150 sends e-mail including various kinds ofinformation to receive a supply of the content distribution based on therelevant reservation to the entered e-mail addresses, which will bedescribed later.

When the entries of the items of the reservation input field 222 aboveare completed and the reservation button 223 is clicked, the CPU 120 ofthe user PC 106 creates a desired reservation information file with thesame content as the input content of the reservation input field 222 andsends this desired reservation information file to the live castingserver 150 over the Internet 103 (step Sb4). In the example shown inFIG. 22, the user performs input operation by entering characters, etc.in each field of the reservation input field 222 using the keyboard,etc, but for the items with predetermined input contents such as“channel”, “reservation date/time” and “genre”, the user may be allowedto perform an input operation by selecting/specifying from a list ofcandidates from a pull-down menu.

The live casting server 150 receives the desired reservation informationfile created according to the input content of the user of the user PC106 above over the Internet 103 and sends a Web page to reconfirmwhether the content of the received desired reservation information fileis acceptable or not (step Sb5). In this way, the display screen of theuser PC 106 shows a display prompting to confirm the desired reservationinformation as shown in FIG. 23. In this case, the live casting server150 also shows displays prompting to confirm the service fee of theservice based on the reservation, the e-mail address of the sender ofthe reservation setting information to be sent from the live castingserver 150 to the user PC 106 later (this e-mail address is the e-mailaddress entered by the user at the time of member registration), etc.Moreover, as described above, the user who reserved live distribution isobliged to reconfirm the reservation a predetermined time before thedistribution time (e.g., 6 hours before) based on the reservation andthe live casting server 150 also shows messages to notify the user ofthis and reconfirmations execution procedure.

Here, if the user agrees to the content displayed on the confirmationscreen above, the user clicks on the Agree button 240 and if the userdoes not agree to the content displayed on the confirmation screenabove, the user clicks on the Cancel button 241. Once the Cancel button241 is clicked, this is sent to the live casting server 150, and thelive casting server 150 discards the desired reservation informationfile and displays a reservation input screen shown in FIG. 22 on thedisplay screen of the user PC 106 and prompts for a reentry. On theother hand, if the Agree button 240 is clicked, the CPU 120 instructsthis to be sent to the live casting server 150 over the Internet 103(step Sb6).

If the Agree button 240 is clicked, the live casting server 150 checksthe content of the desired reservation information file and judgeswhether the reservation should be permitted or not (step Sb7). Here, thelive casting server 150 checks whether there is any omission in theinput content and confirms whether there is any free space in thedesired reservation time zone of the desired channel and further checkswhether the user who requested the reservation has made a reservationexceeding the set number of frames or not. More specifically, it hasalready been mentioned above that this live casting service has asetting of the maximum number of frames (e.g., 1 frame corresponds to 10minutes) that each registered user can reserve a month. Therefore, inchecking as to whether the reservation should be permitted or not, it isjudged whether the number of frames already reserved by the user for onemonth exceeds the set number of frames above or not, and if it exceedsthe set number of frames, the reservation is not permitted. On the otherhand, if the number of frames already reserved by the user for one monthis smaller than the set number of frames, it is judged that the checkresult has no problem and if other check results have no problem, thereservation is permitted. In this way, in order to check the number offrames reserved by the user for one month, the user database 152 storesthe reservation situation from at least one month ago until the presentday for every user registered as a premium member.

When a reservation is permitted, the live casting server 150 creates areservation ID only used for authentication when the reservation isexecuted based on the reservation and writes and registers thereservation time zone, channel used, band used (bps (bit per second)),reservation content information including mail addresses of the friendlist, etc., user ID to identify the user who reserved and the createdreservation ID in the reservation database 151 (see FIG. 18) based onthe content of the desired reservation information file (step Sb8). Bythe way, at the time of this reservation registration, the billing flaginformation indicating whether billing is possible or not indicates thatbilling is “not possible” and when a reconfirmation is made and thereservation is established later, this billing flag is rewritten as“possible”. Moreover, the live casting server 150 adds and writes theinformation on the reservation to the Web page of “my channel”corresponding to the user who made the reservation. Furthermore if thedisclosure level in the reservation is “Public” or “Password”, the livecasting server 150 updates the Web page to include the program based onthis reservation on the Web pages of “Today's live” and “Program guide”above. That is, the information that the content distribution based onthe reservation will be performed is stored in a browsable manner. Inthis case, it is possible to browse the Web page from the clientterminal apparatus 107, etc. over the Internet 103 and know that thelive distribution will be performed based on the reservation. That is,not only when “Public” is set but also when “Password” is set, it ispossible to browse the Web page containing the information that the livedistribution based on the reservation will be performed and any thirdparty can know that the live distribution exists. On the other hand,when “Secret” is set, the live casting server 150 does not include anyinformation on the live distribution carried out based on thisreservation on the Web pages of “Today's live” and “Program guide”above. Therefore, for the live distribution for which “Secret” is set,only specific people such as people who have received e-mail transmittedwhich will be described later and who have browsed are allowed to knowthat the live distribution has been performed.

Once such reservation registration processing is completed, a Web pageurging the user to agree by displaying copyright control andprohibitions, etc. when the relevant service is used is sent to the userPC 106 and displayed on the display screen of the user PC 106. Then,upon reception of an instruction of agreement from the user PC 106, thelive casting server 150 sends a Web page informing the completion of thereservation procedure except reconfirmation to the user PC 106. Here,FIG. 24 shows a reservation procedure completion screen displayed on thedisplay screen of the user PC 106. As shown in the same figure, thisreservation procedure completion screen displays a message urging theuser to reconfirm. Here, if the “OK” button 245 is clicked, thereservation procedure except reconfirmation is completed andhereinafter, the live casting server 150 sends e-mail about thereservation containing the reservation ID created to the user PC 106(step Sb9).

B-2-2. Reconfirmation

As described above, this personal casting service requires the user toreconfirm the reservation 6 hours before the reservation is executed andif the user fails to reconfirm, the reservation is forcibly canceled.Therefore, the user who has acquired the reservation ID through e-mailfrom the live casting server 150 must reconfirm the reservation usingthe user PC 106 to establish the reservation. The reservation procedureuntil the reservation ID above is received can be done using a PCdifferent from the PC used for the live distribution, but it isobligatory to use the PC used for live distribution as the PC forreconfirmation. The following explanation assumes that a reconfirmationwill be made using the user PC 106. The processing operations of theuser PC 106 and live casting server 150 when a reconfirmation is madewill be explained with reference to FIG. 25.

When making a reconfirmation, the user turns ON the power to the user PC106 and starts the application program above (when power is OFF). Then,the user selects a live reservation mode and shows the screen in FIG.8(a) on the display section 124. In this live reservation mode, the useroperates the operation dial 126 b, etc. to select/determine thereservation to be reconfirmed from the reservation list (there can beonly one) displayed in the reservation list area 46. Then, the CPU 120of the user PC 106 performs processing for connection to the Internet103 and sends a request for browsing the Web page “My channel”corresponding to the user to the live casting server 150 (step Sb10). Inthis way, the user PC 106 can send a request for browsing the Web pageto make a reservation for distribution using the function provided bythe application program above. The request for browsing the Web page canalso be sent by entering a URL as appropriate. More specifically, therequest for browsing the Web page can be sent by entering a URL, sendinga request for browsing the homepage shown in FIG. 13, entering the userID and password to log in and clicking on the link button of “Mychannel”.

Thus, when a request for browsing the “My channel” Web page is sent fromthe user PC 106 to the live casting server 150, the live casting server150 sends the Web page to the user PC 106 over the Internet 103 (stepSb11). Upon reception of the Web page sent, the user PC 106 shows theWeb page on the browser display screen 44 (step Sb12).

Here, FIG. 26 shows the “My channel” Web page displayed on the browserdisplay screen 44. As shown in the same figure, this display screenshows a reservation list 250, which is a list of reservations currentlymade by the user to the live casting server 150, a link button 251 tojump to the Web page to check the number of audience of the programdistributed by the user in the past, etc. and a link button 252 to jumpto the Web page to modify the registration information file (see FIG.20) of the user registered in the user database 152. This display screenalso includes descriptions of the method of canceling or modifying areservation and this personal casting service requires the user tocancel the reservation if the user changes the reservation content suchas the channel or date/time and take necessary steps to make adistribution reservation again, and this is described here. On the otherhand, the information other than that of the channel and date/time, suchas a title name and outline can be modified without canceling thereservation.

The reservation list 250 shows for each reservation “reservationdate/time”, “channel”, “title”, a status item indicating the statuswhether this reservation is “waiting for a reconfirmation” or“reconfirmed” and “cancel” button to be clicked when cancellation of thereservation is instructed (one reservation in the figure).

Here, if no reconfirmation of the reservation has been made yet,“waiting for reconfirmation” is displayed in the status item as shown inthe figure and if this page is opened after a reconfirmation of thereservation has been made, “reconfirmed” is displayed. In the case of“waiting for reconfirmation”, if this is clicked, the CPU 120 sends arequest for browsing the reconfirmation screen to the live castingserver 150 over the Internet 103. In response to this request, the livecasting server 150 sends the reconfirmation Web page to the user PC 106over the Internet 103 and the screen shown in FIG. 27 appears on theuser PC 106.

As shown in the same figure, the reconfirmation screen displays contentsof items about the relevant reservation such as “user ID”, “channel”,“reservation date/time”, “disclosure level”, “title”, “genre”, “e-maildisclosure”, “Web disclosure”, “password”, “friend list”, “outline” and“detail”. This display screen further shows the field for entering areservation ID and a message urging the user to enter a reservation IDand make a reconfirmation.

To reconfirm the reservation, the user enters the reservation IDincluded in the e-mail sent from the live casting server 150 in thereservation procedure described above and clicks on the reconfirmationbutton 261. On the other hand, to go back to the “my channel” screencontaining the reservation list 250, etc. (see FIG. 26), the user clickson the Return button 262.

Here, when the reconfirmation button 261 is clicked from thereconfirmation display screen in FIG. 27, setting information toestablish communication/connection with the streaming server 102 in thelive distribution is automatically set in the PC and a message isdisplayed prompting to make a reconfirmation on the corresponding PC,that is, the PC carrying out live distribution.

When the reconfirmation button 261 above is clicked, the CPU 120 of theuser PC 106 sends the information that the user has instructed theexecution of a reconfirmation to the live casting server 150 over theInternet 103 (step Sb13).

As described above, the live casting server 150 that has received thereconfirmation execution instruction sent from the user PC 106references the reservation database 151 and user database 152 andcreates a reservation setting information file shown in FIG. 28 on thisreservation (step Sb14). Here, of the information about each reservationregistered in the reservation database 151, the live casting server 150erases the data about the reservation from the reservation database 151at a point in time 6 hours before the distribution start time based onthe reservation and cancels the reservation. That is, thereservation-related data is erased from the reservation database 151after the point in time 6 hours before the distribution start time.Therefore, if the live casting server 150 receives the reconfirmationexecution instruction above later than 6 hours before the distributionstart time, the data about the reservation is no longer registered evenif the reservation database 151 is referenced. In this case, the livecasting server 150 sends a Web page posting a message “Reservation hasbeen canceled because reconfirmation is not executed. To make areservation, please redo the distribution reservation procedure”, etc.to the user PC 106.

On the other hand, if the live casting server 150 receives thereconfirmation execution instruction above earlier than 6 hours beforethe distribution start time, the live casting server 150 createsreservation setting information. As shown in FIG. 28, the reservationsetting information file created by the live casting server 150 includes“reservation ID”, “live distribution reservation date/time”, “serveraccessible time”, “connection telephone number”, “target serverinformation”, “distribution requester address information”,“transmission band”, “title”, “outline”, “disclosure level”, “friendlist address information” and “distribution request password”.

“Reservation ID” describes the reservation ID created about thereservation, “live distribution reservation date/time” describes thereserved distribution start time and end time. “Server accessible time”describes the time zone during which access to the streaming server 102is permitted to carry out a live distribution. This example describesinformation according to which access to the streaming server 102 ispermitted from 3 minutes before the distribution start time to 3 minutesafter the distribution end time.

“Connection telephone number” describes the telephone numbers of accessports of the dedicated server connection network 108 to connect to thestreaming server 102 and this example describes the telephone numbers ofaccess of ports of a plurality (4 in this figure) carriers. In theprocedure for actual connection to the streaming server 102, which willbe described later, the user selects any one of carriers to carry outprocessing of making a call to the telephone number of the access portfor the selected carrier.

“Target server information” describes items determined according to thechannel selected in this reservation such as “type of server” connectedwhen the channel is used, “server name”, “connection port”, “stream pathfor server”, etc. When a communication/connection between the user PC106 and the access port of the dedicated server connection network 108is established, the connection processing to use the channel reserved bythe streaming server 102 is carried out based on the description of this“target server information”.

“Distribution requester address information” describes URL informationused by the client PC 107 to connect to the streaming server 102 whenthe client PC 107 requests a stream distribution of the content to besent by the user PC 106 to the streaming server 102. When a distributionof the content is requested, it is possible to allow the client PC 107to connect to the streaming server 102 using the relevant URL over theInternet 103.

“Transmission band” describes information determined according to thereserved channel and describes information on the transmission bandpreset in the reserved channel such as 64 kbps and 28.8 kbps. “Title”,“outline” and “disclosure level” each describe the contents registeredat the time of reservation (see FIG. 22 and FIG. 23). “Friend listaddress information” describes e-mail address registered at the time ofreservation.

“Distribution request password” also describes the password informationregistered at the time of reservation. If “disclosure level” is“Public”, the distribution requesting side can request a distributionwithout entering a password and in this case, the information of“distribution request password” is not included in the reservationsetting information file.

Thus, the reservation setting information file created by the livecasting server 150 includes information such as the reservation ID usedfor authentication at the time of connection of the streaming server102, which will be described later, the telephone number and connectionport of the server, etc. to establish a communication/connection withthe streaming server 102. The reservation setting information file issent from the live casting server 150 to the user PC 106 over theInternet 103. In this case, the reservation setting information filecontains command information for automatically writing and incorporatingthe reservation setting information file into a predetermined areacreated on the hard disk 123 of the user PC 106 and command informationfor instructing the display of a message notifying that the automaticincorporation has ended normally or failed. As the technology forautomatically incorporating a file sent from the live casting server150, the distributor, to the user PC 106, the receiver, the technologyof “ActiveX” (registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation) can beused. When using this technology, the user PC 106 needs to use “InternetExplorer” (Microsoft Corporation) which can use “ActiveX” as the browsersoftware.

The live casting server 150 that has created the reservation settinginformation file in text data, etc. including the various kinds of dataand commands above encrypts this file using an encryption system such asDES (Data Encryption Standard), etc. and sends this encryption filetogether with the Web page that displays the reconfirmation completionscreen to the user PC 106 over the Internet 103 (step Sb15).

As described above, when the live casting server 150 sends the encryptedreservation setting information file and Web page, the CPU 120 of theuser PC 106 receives this and decrypts the reservation settinginformation file using the technology of “ActiveX”, automaticallyincorporates it in a predetermined area of the hard disk 123 accordingto the command included in the file (step Sb16) and shows thereconfirmation completion screen on the browser display screen 44 (stepSb17). Therefore, the user PC 106 stores a program to decrypt the aboveencryption and executes this program when encrypting the reservationsetting information file above. Furthermore, when the CPU 120 writes thereservation setting information file in a predetermined area, the userPC 106 has a program to encrypt and write the file according to apredetermined encryption system (DES, etc.) and by executing thisprogram, the reservation setting information file is encrypted andsaved. Therefore, normally, the user is not allowed to display andreference the content of the automatically incorporated reservationsetting information file. This prevents the access port numbers of thededicated server connection network 108 from being unnecessarilydisclosed to many people and prevents illegal accesses to the accessports of the dedicated server connection network 108 with an intentionof interfering with this service.

Here, FIG. 29 shows the reconfirmation completion screen displayed onthe browser display screen 44 above. As shown in the same figure, thisscreen shows the current time of the service provider and the time ofthe user PC 106. Here, the time of the service provider is the timeinformation acquired from the NTP server 153 when the live castingserver 150 sends the Web page. On the other hand, the time of the userPC 106 shows the current time shown by the clock of the user PC 106.Then, the CPU 120 of the user PC 106 calculates the difference betweenthese times (in units of minutes) and if there is any difference, showsa message warning the time difference as shown in the figure. In thisway, it is possible to notify the user of the user PC 106 of the timedifference from that of the service provider to draw attention, or it isalso possible to store a time correction program to automaticallycorrect the time of the user PC 106 based on the time information of theservice provider sent together with the Web page above in the user PC106 and when the user PC 106 receives the reconfirmation completionscreen Web page as shown above, correct the time of the user PC 106according to the time of the service provider by the CPU 120 executingthe time correction program. This allows the service provider and theuser PC 106 to share the same time, making it possible to smoothly carryforward the service of live distribution, which requires the accuracy intime.

Furthermore, the reconfirmation completion screen describes the specialitem to access the dedicated server connection network 108 using adialup router. When executing processing of communication/connectionwith the streaming server 102 to execute a live distribution, the userPC 106 is set to automatically call the access telephone number to theaccess port of the dedicated server connection network 108 described inthe reservation setting information file above (details will be givenlater). In this way, by the CPU 120 executing the program for automaticcalling, the user can automatically carry out communication/connectionprocessing without carrying out troublesome input operation such asentering telephone numbers. However, when the user PC 106 is connectedto the network via a dialup router, it is necessary to set theinformation to be connected to the dedicated server connection network108 via the dialup router. Thus, since it is not possible to performprocessing of automatic calling based on the telephone number describedin reservation setting information file, it is necessary for the user tomanually set the telephone number, etc. of the access port. The specialitem above is a description taking into account the necessity of manualsetting when this dialup router is used and in this case, the accessport number, login ID (reservation ID in this case) and password to bemanually set by the user are displayed. In the example illustratedabove, connection using the dialup router is only permitted via ISDN(Integrated Services Digital Network), but the present invention is notlimited to this.

When the user clicks on the “OK” button 291 by confirming the display ofthe confirmation screen above, the CPU 120 sends information that the“OK” button 291 has been clicked to the live casting server 150 over theInternet 103 (step Sb18) and the reconfirmation-related processing onthe user side completes. On the other hand, the live casting server 150that has received the information that the “OK” button 291 has beenclicked references the reservation database 151 and sends e-mailnotifying that there is a live database 151 and sends e-mail addressesregistered in the “friend list” about the relevant reservation (stepSb19). Here, FIG. 30 shows the content displayed on the display screenof the PC when the e-mail above is opened. As shown in the same figure,this e-mail shows information such as “live distribution date/time”,“title”, “outline”, “URL of distribution requester” (see “distributionrequester address information” in FIG. 28), “password” to request adistribution when the disclosure level is “Password” or “Secret” (see“Distribution request password” in FIG. 28). If the user of the user PC106 registers e-mail addresses of friends, etc. to whom the user wantslive distribution to be presented at the time of reservation, thisallows the user to notify the friends of the information toautomatically receive the live distribution. Thus, this eliminates thenecessity for the user who performs live distribution to carry out atroublesome operation such as transmitting the information to receivelive distribution by telephone or creating e-mail including the relevantinformation.

In the above explanation, the processing of sending the e-mail above(see FIG. 30) to the e-mail addresses registered in the “friend list” isperformed after the reconfirmation is completed, but transmission of thee-mail above can also be performed by the live casting server 150 whenthe processing of registering the reservation in the reservationdatabase 151 based on the reservation request file from the user (stepSb8 in FIG. 21) is completed. If e-mail is sent at the time ofcompletion of the reservation registration processing, those who havee-mail addresses can know earlier that there is a live distribution. Inthis case, it is also possible to perform similar e-mail transmissionprocessing again at the time of completion of the reconfirmation.

In addition to sending e-mail as shown above, if thereconfirmation-related processing finishes, the live casting server 150regards it to mean that the reservation has been established, rewritesthe billing flag information of the reservation database 151 about thisreservation to “enabled” and performs billing processing about thereservation. Here, the billing sum is calculated based on the servicefee preset for every channel as shown above. For example, when areservation of using 6 frames of a channel for which a service fee of.Yen.100 per 1 frame (10 minutes) is set is established, .Yen.600 isbilled for the reservation. However, the actual billing processing isexecuted after confirming that the streaming server 102 is operatingnormally on the day of live distribution.

The explanation above describes the case where the user PC 106 is usedwhich stores the program for encrypting and automatically storing thereservation setting information file sent from the live casting server150, but the PC that does not store such a program cannot automaticallyincorporate the file. In such a case, the following technique is used toincorporate the reservation setting information file into the PC. First,in the case of a PC that does not store the program above and thuscannot automatically incorporate the file, the information thatautomatic incorporation has failed is displayed on the display screen ofthe PC. In addition to a message indicating the failure, another messageappears on the same screen which instructs the user to return to the “mychannel” (see FIG. 26) screen and click on “wait for reconfirmation” torequest for browsing the reconfirmation screen again. On the other hand,the live casting server 150 that receives no reconfirmation “OK” fromthe user PC 106 but receives a request for a reconfirmation screen fromthe user PC 106 judges that the user PC 106 has failed to automaticallyread the reservation setting information file and sends a Web page fordownloading the reservation setting information file to the user PC 106over the Internet 103. As a result, the display screen on the PC sideshows a button for downloading the reservation setting information fileand clicking on this button starts downloading of the reservationsetting information file.

This is the flow of the distribution reservation processing operationfrom the issuing of a reservation request to the establishment of thereservation by the completion of a reconfirmation. In this way, evenafter a reconfirmation is completed, the information such as genre andoutline can be changed and the reservation can still be canceled evenafter the reconfirmation is completed (in this case, the billingprocessing is performed because the billing flag information above is“enabled”). The processing operation when such a change or cancellationis made will be explained below with reference to the display content ofthe browser display screen 44 displayed on the display section 124 ofthe user PC 106.

First, when a reconfirmed reservation is changed or canceled, anoperation to request browsing of the Web page corresponding to “Mychannel” is performed in the same way as for when the reconfirmationabove is made. Thus, the CPU 120 of the user PC 106 carries outprocessing for connecting to the Internet 103 and requests the livecasting server 150 for browsing the Web page in “My channel”corresponding to the relevant user.

When the user PC 106 requests the live casting server 150 for browsingthe “My channel” Web page, the live casting server 150 sends the Webpage to the user PC 106 over the Internet 103. Upon reception of the Webpage sent, the user PC 106 displays the Web page on the browser displayscreen 44.

Here, FIG. 31 shows the reconfirmed “My channel” Web page displayed onthe browser display screen 44. When compared with the display screen(see FIG. 26) of “My channel” waiting for a reconfirmation, thereconfirmed “My channel” display screen differs in that “reconfirmed” isdisplayed in the status item of the reservation list 250 and a “change”link button 310 is displayed.

To make a change, this “change” link button 310 is clicked. When the“change” link button 310 is clicked, the CPU 120 of the user PC 106sends information that the “change” link button has been clicked to thelive casting server 150 over the Internet 103. In response to this, thelive casting server 150 sends a Web page for the change to the user PC106 over the Internet 103 and as a result, the browser display screen 44of the user PC 106 displays the screen shown in FIG. 32.

As shown in the same figure, the change screen shows the currently setreservation content and the items “genre”, “disclose e-mail”, “discloseWeb”, “password”, “outline” and “detail” of these display contents canbe changed and when these are displayed, the display colors of the itemsthat can be changed are different from the colors of items that cannotbe changed (reservation date/time, etc.).

The user overwrites the currently displayed setting contents with newcontents and clicks on the Update button 321. If the contents are notchanged, the user clicks on the Return button 322.

Then, when the user clicks on the Update button 321, the CPU 120 of theuse PC 106 creates an information file with the changed content andsends this to the live casting server 150 over the Internet 103. Thus,the live casting server 150 updates the registration content of thereservation database 151 based on the information file with the changedcontent and sends the Web page of the changed screen to the user PC 106over the Internet 103. As a result, the browser display screen 44displays the screen shown in FIG. 33.

As shown in the same figure, in addition to a message stating that thechange has been accepted, the change completion screen shows the time onthe service provider side, the time on the user PC 106 side and timedifference between the two and special items when the dialup router isused, in the same way as for the reconfirmation completion screen above(see FIG. 30). Clicking on the “OK” button 331 here completes the changeand returns to the “My channel” screen shown in FIG. 31.

When the reservation is changed in this way, the live casting server 150sends e-mail including the information that the reservation has beenchanged and the change content, etc. to the e-mail addresses registeredin the friend list above. Thus, it is possible to automatically informthose who have the e-mail addresses of the friend list of thereservation change content of live distribution without the need for theuser of the user PC 106 to inform by telephone that the reservationcontent of live distribution has been changed or create e-mail includingsuch a message.

Then, the case where a reservation is canceled will be explained. As inthe case of changing a reconfirmation as described above, the operationfor requesting browsing of a Web page corresponding to “My channel” isperformed. Thus, the browser display screen 44 shows the reconfirmed “Mychannel” screen shown in FIG. 31.

To cancel a reservation, the user clicks on the “Cancel” link button311. When the “Cancel” link button 311 is clicked, the CPU 120 of theuser PC 106 sends the information that the “Cancel” link button has beenclicked to the live casting server 150 over the Internet 103. Inresponse to this, the live casting server 150 sends a Web page for thecancellation to the user PC 106 over the Internet 103 and as a result,the browser display screen 44 of the user PC 106 displays thecancellation screen shown in FIG. 34.

As shown in the same figure, the cancellation screen shows the currentlyset reservation content and a “reservation cancellation” button 341 and“Return” button 342. Here, the user clicks on the “Reservationcancellation” button 341 to cancel the reservation and clicks on the“Return” button 342 otherwise.

Then, when the user clicks on the “Reservation cancel” button 341, theCPU 120 of the user PC 106 sends the information that the reservationwill be canceled to the live casting server 150 over the Internet 103.Thus, the live casting serve 150 erases the registration content of thereservation database 151 and sends the Web page of the cancellationcompletion screen to the user PC 106 over the Internet 103. As a result,the browser display screen 44 of the user PC 106 displays a messageshown in FIG. 35 notifying that the reservation has been canceled. Whenthe user clicks on the “OK” button 343 here, cancellation is completedand the “My channel” screen in FIG. 31 is returned to.

When the registration is canceled in this way, the live casting server150 sends e-mail including information that the reservation has beencanceled and live distribution has been stopped to the e-mail addressesregistered in the friend list above. Thus, it is possible toautomatically inform people who have the e-mail addresses that livedistribution has been stopped without the need for the user of the userPC 106 to inform by telephone that live distribution has been stopped orcreate e-mail including such a message.

Furthermore, if the user wants to confirm the reservation content afterthe reconfirmation above has been made, the user clicks on the“Reconfirmed” button shown on the screen in FIG. 31. When the“Reconfirmed” button is clicked, the CPU 120 of the user PC 106 sendsthe information to the live casting server 150 over the Internet 103. Inresponse to this, the live casting server 150 sends the Web page forconfirming the reconfirmed reservation to the use PC 106 over theInternet 103. As a result, the browser display screen 44 of the user PC106 shows the currently set reservation content, special item when thedialup router is used, a “Reenter PC connection setting” button 361 anda “Return” button 362 instructing a return to the “My channel” screen.

If the “Reenter PC connection setting” button 361 is clicked, the CPU120 of the user PC 106 sends the information to the live casting server150 over the Internet 103. In response to this, the live casting server150 sends the reservation setting information file (see FIG. 29) to theuser PC 106 over the Internet 103 again. As a result, the user PC 106automatically incorporates the reservation setting information file.Retransmission of this reservation setting information file can beperformed when a PC different from the PC used to make a reconfirmationis used to perform live distribution, etc.

B-3. Live Distribution

When the distribution reservation including the above reconfirmation iscompleted and the time for starting the reserved live distributioncomes, the user of the user PC 106 connects to the streaming server 102via the dedicated server connection network 108 and performs a livedistribution of the content. Then, the client PC 107 receives the supplyof the content by requesting the stream distribution of the content.

B-3-1. Content Transmission from User PC to Streaming Server

The processing operations of the user PC 106, the dedicated serverconnection network 108, the database server 155 (see FIG. 12) and thestreaming server 102 when the user PC 106 sends content to the streamingserver 102 during live distribution will be explained with reference toFIG. 37 showing a sequence flow chart of the processing operation.

When a live distribution is performed, connection to the streamingserver 102 is permitted from 5 minutes before the time of starting thereserved live distribution, and so the processing to establishcommunication/connection between the user PC 106 and the streamingserver 102 will be started from this time on. The user prepares contentdistribution before the time of starting the live distribution. Here,the preparation for the content distribution includes the determinationof the picture taking position of the digital video camera 129 (see FIG.3), effect setting processing in live distribution mode based on theconcept of the content to be distributed (see FIG. 10 and FIG. 11), etc.

The user PC 106 of this embodiment stores a program to display a message“Live distribution will start soon” to the user a predetermined timebefore the reserved live distribution start time (e.g., 10 minutesbefore) and as shown in FIG. 37, when the time a predetermined timeahead comes, the CPU 120 of the user PC 106 executes this program todisplay the message “Live distribution will start soon” on the displaysection 124 (step Sc1). This prevents the user from forgetting the livedistribution start time. Here, if the user PC 106 is not set to livedistribution mode in the above application, the CPU 120 automaticallyexecutes this application program, automatically selects the livedistribution mode in the application and displays the “Live distributionmode” screen on the display section 124 (see FIG. 9(a)).

After this, when the time at which the start of connection to thestreaming server 102 is permitted (5 minutes before the start time)comes, the CPU 120 of the user PC 106 executes the connection processingprogram to automatically start the processing ofcommunication/connection with the streaming server 102. Here, thecommunication/connection processing started can be fully automated orthe user can only enter an instruction for the final connection startand automatically execute the communication/connection processing usingthis input as a trigger.

Here, the processing by the CPU 120 according to thecommunication/connection processing program above decrypts thereservation setting information file encrypted and stored in apredetermined registry (see FIG. 29) and carries out the followingcommunication/connection processing based on the information describedin the items “reservation ID” of this file, “server accessible time”,“connection telephone number” and “connection server information”.

When the accessible start time indicated by “server accessible time”comes, the CPU 120 starts communication/connection processing, acquiresthe access port telephone number of the carrier preset by the user byreferencing the “connection telephone number” of the reservation settinginformation file and carries out processing for calling the relevanttelephone number. The CPU 120 then sends the reservation ID to theaccess server of the dedicated server connection network 108 andrequests for communication/connection (step Sc2). Since the automaticcalling processing is carried out in this way, the user need not enterthe telephone number, etc. In the case of live distribution inparticular as described above, using the user PC 106 in the modes shownin FIG. 3(b) or FIG. 3(c) by entering information, etc. using thekeyboard 126 a is a very complicated operation, and therefore theprocessing of automatic calling provides the user with a morecomfortable content creation environment.

In order to authenticate whether the user PC 106 that has requestedconnection to the access port as described above belongs to a user whohas a valid reservation or not, the access server of the dedicatedserver connection network 108 sends the reservation ID sent to thedatabase server 155 of the server reservation control center 101 (stepSc3). Thus, the database server 155 that has received the reservation IDsent from the dedicated server connection network 108 carries outauthentication processing by checking whether this reservation ID isregistered in the reservation database 151 in the time zone that startsfrom the current time (step Sc4). Here, if the reservation ID sent isregistered in the reservation database 151, the access server judgesthat the user PC 106 that has sent this reservation ID has a validreservation and if the reservation ID sent is not registered in thereservation database 151, the access server judges that the user PC 106that has sent this reservation ID does not have a valid reservation inthat time zone.

In the authentication processing here, only the reservation ID describedabove is used. This has the following effect. For example, when thereservation is authenticated using the user ID and password of a memberof this service, even if it is confirmed that the user ID and passwordare valid and it is the member who has accessed, it is not possible todistinguish whether the member has a reservation in that time zone ornot. Therefore, in the authentication processing, is it necessary toauthenticate whether the user is a member or not, then check theregistration content of the reservation and check whether the memberidentified with the user ID has a reservation in the time zone or not,which makes the authentication processing very complicated. In contrast,if the reservation ID used only for authentication for the reservationdescribed above is used, this reservation ID is the information thatonly the user can know, and therefore there is no need to authenticatethe user ID and it is possible to distinguish whether the user has avalid reservation or not through simple authentication processing ofchecking whether the reservation ID is registered as the reservation forthe time zone corresponding to the accessed time.

The database server 155 that has performed authentication processingusing the reservation ID as described above sends this authenticationresult to the access server of the dedicated server connection network108 (step Sc5).

When the authentication result from the database server 155 abovebelongs to a user with a valid reservation, the access server of thededicated server connection network 108 permits the connection betweenthe user PC 106 and the streaming server 102, which establishes a PPPconnection and communication/connection between the two (step Sc6). Onthe other hand, in the case where the authentication result above doesnot belong to a user with a valid reservation, the access server of thededicated server connection network 108 does not permit the connectionbetween the user PC 106 and the streaming server 102 and immediatelycuts the call from the user PC 106. Thus, by immediately cutting thecall when it is judged that the call is from an illegal user, the lineis secured for users with a valid reservation.

When connected to the streaming server 102 via the dedicated serverconnection network 108 as described above, the CPU 120 of the user PC106 sends a reservation ID to the streaming server 102 to request for alive distribution (step Sc7).

The streaming server 102 that has received the live distribution requestfrom the user PC 106 sends the reservation ID sent to the databaseserver 155 of the server reservation control center 101 to authenticatewhether the user PC 106 that has requested for the live distributionbelongs to a user with a valid reservation or not (step Sc8). Thus, thedatabase server 155 that has received the reservation ID sent from thestreaming server 102 carries out authentication processing by checkingwhether this reservation ID is registered in the reservation database151 in the time zone that starts from the current time or not (stepSc9). The authentication processing here is similar to that when areservation ID is sent from the access server of the dedicated serverconnection network 108 above.

The database server 155 that has carried out authentication processingusing the reservation ID as shown above sends this authentication resultto the streaming server 102 (step Sc10).

In the case where the authentication result from the database server 155above belongs to a user with a valid reservation, the streaming server102 permits a live distribution by the user PC 106 and sends an order ofpermission to the user PC 106 (step Sc11), acquires information aboutthe reservation from the reservation database 151 (reservation timezone, channel, etc.) and controls live distribution based on thisinformation. Doing so, the CPU 120 of the user PC 106 displays amessage, etc. to notify the user that the live distribution has beenpermitted and urges the user to start distribution of the content. Uponreception of this notification, the user states picture taking of thedigital video camera 129 by operating the operation dial 126 b andoperation buttons 126 c as appropriate, creates moving image dataobtained by applying real-time effect processing to the video captured,instructs the start of live distribution and sends the created movingimage data to the streaming server 102 in real time via the dedicatedserver connection network 108 (step Sc12).

Thus, the streaming server 102 that has received the moving image data,which is the content sent from the user PC 106 performsstream-distribution of this to the client PC 107 that has requested. Inthis case, if the “disclosure level” of the live distribution (see FIG.22, etc.) is “Public”, the streaming server 102 performsstream-distribution unconditionally according to the distributionrequest if it is within the capacity of the channel through which thelive distribution is carried out. On the other hand, if the “disclosurelevel” is “Password” or “Secret”, the streaming server 102 urges theclient PC 107 that has requested the distribution to enter a passwordand performs stream-distribution only for the client PC 107 that hasentered a valid password. The distribution request between the streamingserver 102 and the client PC 107 and the stream distribution processingoperation will be described later.

Once the live distribution is started in this way, the streaming server102 sends the time information on the service provider side acquiredfrom the NTP server 153 and information on the number of the client PCs107 that receive the live distribution, that is, the client PCs 107 thathave requested distribution of the content, to the user PC 106. Then,the status window SW (see FIG. 9(a)) displayed on the display section124 of the user PC 106 shows information that the content is on the air,information on elapsed time of distribution, time information on theservice provider side, time information on the user PC 106 side,information on the number of audience, reservation start/end time,residual time information indicating the residual time of distribution,image size information and information on the distribution datatransmission rate, etc. With reference to the display of this statuswindow SW, the user can know various kinds of information on the livedistribution currently in progress. Especially, it is a matter ofconcern for the transmitter of content how many people are viewing orlistening to the content and this also serves as a reference inselecting a channel (selecting the capacity) when live distribution isperformed the next time. Thus, the display of the number of audiencedescribed above can be significant to the user.

In this way, when content is sent from the user PC 106 to the streamingserver 102 and the user of the user PC 106 finishes live distributionbefore the reservation end time (time on the service provider side), theuser operates the operation dial 126 b (see FIG. 3) etc. toselect/determine “distribution start/end” of the GUI (see FIG. 9(b)) inthe live distribution mode. Thus, the CPU 120 of the user PC 106finishes the transmission of content and cuts the connection with thestreaming server 102 (step Sc13).

On the other hand, if the user personally finishes the contenttransmission before the reservation end time, the above processing isperformed, but if the content transmission from the user PC 106 to thestreaming server 102 is in progress when the reservation end time isreached, the streaming server 102 finishes stream distributionprocessing of the content sent from the user PC 106 for the client PC107 when the reservation end time is reached. The streaming server 102further forcibly cuts the communication/connection with the user PC 106when the time to finish the connection with the user PC 106 indicated by“server accessible time” (see FIG. 29) above.

B-3-2. Stream Distribution of Content from Streaming Server to Client PC

What has been explained above is the detail of the content transmissionprocessing from the user PC 106, which is the transmitter terminalduring live distribution to the streaming server 102 and the streamingserver 102 receives content transmission from the user PC 106 andperforms a stream distribution of the content to the client PC 107 thathas sent a request. This processing operation of content streamdistribution will be explained with reference to the display screen,etc. of the client PC 107 that sends a distribution request. In thefollowing explanation, suppose the “disclosure level” of the contentdistribution (see FIG. 22) is “Password” or “Secret” and this user ofthe client PC 107 knows the password to receive content supply.

When the client user of the client PC 107 sends a content distributionrequest, the client user turns on power to the client PC 107 and startsthe browser software. Then, the client user enters a URL to identify thetop page of the Web page of the live casting server 150 on the client PC107 and the CPU of the client PC 107 sends a request for browsing of theWeb page to the live casting server 150 over the Internet 103. Thus, thelive casting server 150 sends the top page of the Web page over theInternet 103 and as a result, the display screen of the client PC 107displays the screen shown in FIG. 13.

To receive a content distribution, the client user clicks on linkbuttons such as “Today's live” (see FIG. 15) or “program guide” (seeFIG. 17). If the client user clicks on “program guide”, the client userfurther clicks on the current date on the calendar shown on the screenin FIG. 17. Thus, the program distributed on the day is displayed asshown in FIG. 15. Then, the client user clicks on the “title” linkbutton of the program whose distribution is requested from the programdisplayed.

When the “title” link button is clicked in this way, the CPU of theclient PC 107 sends a request for browsing the Web page that displaysdetailed information of the “title” to the live casting server 150 overthe Internet 103. Then, the live casting server 150 sends the Web pagethat displays detailed information of the specified live program to theclient PC 107 over the Internet 103. As a result, the display screen ofthe client PC 107 displays the screen shown in FIG. 16.

If the client user requests the distribution of the program with thedetailed information, the client user enters a password to obtain adistribution permission on the display screen shown in FIG. 16 andclicks on the “Replay” button 175. In the case where the client PC 107does not have real-time replay software, the client user clicks on the“Replay software” button 176 before clicking on the “Replay” button 175to download the replay software beforehand.

Then, when the password is entered and the “Replay” button 175 isclicked, the CPU of the client PC 107 sends the password entered anddistribution request to the streaming server 102 over the Internet 103.The streaming server 102 sends the password sent to the database server155 and the database server 155 executes authentication processingwhether the password sent is valid or not with reference to thereservation database 151 and sends the authentication result to thestreaming server 102.

When the authentication result above shows that the password sent is avalid password, the streaming server 102 judges whether or not toperform a distribution to the client PC 107 based on the capacity presetin the channel used for the content distribution. More specifically, thestreaming server 102 compares the number of the client PCs 107 carryingout distribution of the content with the capacity above and if contentdistribution is already being carried out to the same number of clientPCs 107 as the capacity, the streaming server 102 will perform nofurther distribution. That is, when content distribution is beingcarried out to the capacity of client PCs 107 at the time of adistribution request, the streaming server 102 will not respond to thedistribution request.

On the other hand, if the number of client PCs 107 that receive thecontent is smaller than the capacity at the time of the distributionrequest, the streaming server 102 permits the distribution to therequesting client PCs 107 and the streaming server 102 performs streamdistribution of the content to the client PCs 107. In this way, oncestream distribution is started, the display screen of the client PC 107displays the replay display screen 390 of the replay software on theprogram detailed information display screen as shown in FIG. 38 and thestream-distributed content is reproduced in real time on the replaydisplay screen 390. In this way, the users of the clients PCs 107 canreproduce and view and listen to the live-distributed content in realtime.

Furthermore, the streaming server 102 counts the number of the clientPCs 107 that sent a request for distribution of the program and areactually receiving the distribution one by one and sends this countresult, that is, information of the number of audience to the contenttransmission terminal (the user PC 106 in the above explanation).

In the explanation above, the client PCs 107 send a distribution requestto the streaming server 102 via the Web page of the live casting server150, but when a user who has an e-mail address set in the “Friend list”(see FIG. 22) sends a distribution request using the client PC 107, itis also possible to configure the system so that the user enters a URLdisplayed in “Distribution requester address information” of the e-mailsent from the live casting server 150 as described above (see FIG. 30)or clicks on a URL displayed. Carrying out such an operation, the CPU ofthe client PC 107 starts processing of connection to the destinationspecified by the URL, that is, the streaming server 102 and can therebyrequest the streaming server 102 for distribution.

C. Modification

By the way, the present invention is not limited to the embodimentdescribed above, but can be modified in various manners as shown in thefollowing examples.

(Modification 1)

In the embodiment above, the streaming server 102 stream-distributes toa requesting client PC 107 the content sent from the user PC 106. Thestreaming server 102 can also be configured so as to carry out arebroadcast service consisting of carrying out the stream distributionprocessing, storing the content sent from the user PC 106 in a mediumsuch as a hard disk and distributing this as on-demand program. In thiscase, it is possible to post the rebroadcast program on the “Today'sprogram” Web page above (see FIG. 15) and distribute the content to therequesting client PC 107.

Furthermore, the embodiment above performs content distribution bysending moving image data taken by the digital video camera 129 of theuser PC 106 in real time as content to the streaming server 102, but itis also possible to configure the system so that the user performscontent distribution by storing content created beforehand using theuser PC 106, etc. in the hard disk 123 and sending the content to thestreaming server 102 at a reserved distribution time. In order to sendcontent in real time using the user PC 106 as described in theembodiment above, when sending content such as the moving image data,etc. captured to the streaming server 102, it is also possible to storethe content data in the hard disk 123 of the user PC 106. Then, contentdistribution may be performed by making a reservation for livedistribution again and distributing the stored content as a rebroadcastprogram from the user PC 106 to the streaming server 102.

(Modification 2)

In the embodiment above, the streaming server 102 performs processing ofstream distribution of the content sent from the user PC 106 to arequesting client PC 107. However, it is also possible to configure thesystem so as to perform a service consisting of not only performing thestream distribution processing but also storing the content sent fromthe user PC 106 in a medium such as a hard disk, writing the content tovarious publicly known package medium such as CD-ROM (Compact Disc-ReadOnly Memory) and DVD-ROM (Digital Versatile Disc-Read Only Memory) anddistributing the content to the requesting user. Such a service allowsthe client user of the client PC 107 to view and listen to thelive-distributed content and request favorite content written in apackage medium to be distributed. Here, as described above, since thededicated server connection network 108 is used as the communicationpath between the user PC 106, which is the terminal for transmitting thecontent, and the streaming server 102, it is possible to secure asufficient transmission band. On the other hand, the communication pathbetween the streaming server 102 and the client PC 107 is the one usingthe Internet 103, and therefore it is not always possible to secure asufficient transmission band, and the communication path is likely to besubjected to restrictions on the transmission band. Due to suchrestrictions on the transmission band, it is necessary to reduce thetransmission rate of stream data distributed to the client PC 107 and inthis case, the quality of reproduced image of the content maydeteriorate at the client PC 107. The above-described service canrespond to the request for viewing and listening to favorite contentwith high-quality video reproduced. That is, using the service above, itis possible to write content sent from the user PC 106 to the streamingserver 102 directly into a package medium and reproduce the writtencontent data using the client PC 107, allowing the client user to viewand listen to the content with the same quality as that of the contentsent from the user PC 106 to the streaming server 102. It is alsopossible to configure the system so that the client who receives asupply of content recorded in such a package medium views and listens tothe content reproduced or displayed on a TV screen using a player (canbe other than a PC) provided with a function of reproducing/displayingthe content stored in the package medium.

(Modification 3)

The embodiment above permits the user to perform live distribution onlyin a time zone reserved beforehand. However, it is also possible toconfigure the system so that while live distribution based on thereservation is in progress, the streaming server 102 references thereservation database 151, checks the reservation situation after thereservation time of the channel currently in use is completed and ifthere is any free space, sends a message such as “Reservation can beextended to oo” to the user PC 106 a predetermined time before thereservation end time (e.g., 10 minutes before). The status window SW(see FIG. 9(a)) of the user PC 106 that has received this message, etc.can display this message. In this case, an extension button is displayedon the status window SW, and when this extension button is clicked, theCPU 120 of the user PC 106 sends the information that an extension willbe made to the streaming server 102. The streaming server 102 that hasreceived this permits the extension. Carrying out such an extensionservice provides effects such as making it possible to respond to anextension request of the user of the user PC 106 who is the distributorand also allowing the service provider to make effective use of thechannel of the streaming server 102.

(Modification 4)

Furthermore, the embodiment above describes the case where the programto execute distribution reservation processing is pre-installed in thehard disk of the live casting server 150 or the program to executevarious kinds of processing for making a reservation for distribution orvarious kinds of processing for live distribution is pre-installed inthe hard disk 123 of the user PC 106. However, the present invention isnot limited to this and it is also possible to install the various kindsof programs above by reproducing a program storage medium consisting ofa package medium such as CD-ROM (Compact Disk-Read Only Memory) andDVD-ROM (Digital Versatile Disc-Read Only Memory) or install the variouskinds of programs above by reproducing a program storage medium such assemiconductor memory or magneto-optical disk in which such a program isstored temporarily or permanently.

As the means for storing the various kinds of programs above in theseprogram storage media, it is also possible to use wired or wirelesscommunication media such as a local area network, digital satellitebroadcasting or store those programs via various communicationinterfaces such as a router and modem.

(Modification 5)

Furthermore, the embodiment above describes the case where the Internet103 is used as the network to make a reservation for distributionbetween the user PC 106 and the live casting server 150, but the presentinvention is not limited to this and it is also possible to use othertypes of wired or wireless network.

Furthermore, the embodiment above is provided with the dedicated serverconnection network 108 to connect the user PC 106 and the streamingserver 102, but the present invention is not limited to this and it isalso possible to connect the two using the Internet 103.

(Modification 6)

Furthermore, the embodiment above uses the user PC 106 with a built-indigital video camera 129 as the transmitter terminal for livedistribution, but it is also possible to use a normal PC with a digitalvideo camera connected via the IEEE (Institute of Electrical andElectronic Engineers) 1394 interface, etc. using cables or a PC with adigital video camera connected by radio. It is also possible to use acellular phone with a digital video camera connected using a cable, etc.or a cellular phone with a built-in digital video camera instead of theuser PC 106.

The case where a cellular phone using a built-in digital video camerainstead of the user PC 106 will be explained below.

In FIG. 39, reference numeral 200 denotes a network system to which acellular phone MS3 applying the present invention is connected and basestations CS1 to CS4, which are fixed radio stations, are located intheir respective cells resulting from dividing the communication servicesupply area into desired sizes.

These base stations CS1 to CS4 are connected to portable informationterminals MS1 and MS2, which are mobile radio stations, andcamera-integrated digital cellular phones MS3 and MS4 by radio accordingto a W-CDMA (Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access) system and arecapable of high-speed data communication of large-volume data at a datatransfer rate of up to 2 using a 2 [GHz] frequency band.

In this way, the portable information terminals MS1 and MS2 andcamera-integrated digital cellular phones MS3 and MS4 can performhigh-speed data communication of a large volume of data according to theW-CDMA system, and can thereby perform not only voice communication butalso various kinds of data communication such as transmission/receptionof e-mail, browsing of simple homepages, transmission/reception ofimages.

Furthermore, the base stations CS1 to CS4 are connected to the telephonenetwork 104 via a wired line, and this telephone network 104 isconnected to the Internet 103 and many subscribers wired terminals (notshown), computer networks and in-house networks, etc.

The telephone network 104 is also connected to the access server AS ofthe Internet server provider and the access server AS is connected to acontent server TS owned by the relevant Internet service provider.

This content server TS provides content such as simple homepage as afile in a compact HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) format, for exampleaccording to the request from the subscriber wired terminal, portableinformation terminals MS1 and MS2 and camera-integrated digital cellularphones MS3 and MS4. This compact HTML is an HTML subset obtained bykeeping only tags that can be reflected and leaving out the rest of alimit-sized display apparatus. For example, iMode (registered trademark)of NTT DoCoMo uses an i-mode HTML which focuses functions necessary fora cellular phone and used 30 types of tags and has restrictions suchthat it is not possible to specify character attributes and colors oftext and a two-gradation GIF file is recommended for images. It ispossible to create a simple homepage file that is browsed by portableterminals with a limited display area and display capability by usingthis compact HTML, HDML (Handheld Device Markup Language) and WML(Wireless Markup Language) which are descriptive languages used formobile communication protocol WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), etc.

In this network system 200, the Internet 103 is connected to the serverreservation control center 101, streaming server 102 same as in theembodiment above, and the subscriber wired terminals, portableinformation terminals MS1 and MS2 and camera-integrated digital cellularphones MS3 and MS4 can access the server reservation control center 101and streaming server 102 according to a protocol such as TCP/IP(Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). In the exampleillustrated, when a content distribution is performed using thestreaming server 102, the camera-integrated digital cellular phones MS3and MS4 send content to the streaming server 102 over the dedicatedserver connection network 108 as in the embodiment above, but it is alsopossible to configure the system so that content is sent over theInternet 103.

By the way, the portable information terminals MS1 and MS2, and thecamera-integrated digital cellular phones MS3 and MS4 communicate withbase stations CS1 to CS4 using a simple transport protocol of 2 (notshown) and the base stations CS1 to CS4 communicate with WWW server WS1to “WSn over the Internet ITN using a TCP/IP protocol.

By the way, the management control unit MCU is connected to thesubscriber wired terminal, portable information terminals MS1 and MS2and camera-integrated digital cellular phones MS3 and MS4 via thetelephone network 104 and is responsible for authentication processingand billing processing on the subscriber wired terminal, portableinformation terminals MS1 and MS2 and camera-integrated digital cellularphones MS3 and MS4.

Then, a configuration example of the appearance of the camera-integrateddigital cellular phone MS3 that can be used instead of the user PC 106above will be explained. As shown in FIG. 40, the camera-integrateddigital cellular phone MS3 is divided into the display section 212 andmain unit 213 with the hinge section 211 in the center as the boundaryand is foldable via the hinge section 211.

The display section 212 has a transmission/reception antenna 214 at thetop left set in a telescopic manner and signals are transmitted/receivedto/from the base station CS3 via the antenna 214.

Furthermore, the display section 212 is provided with a camera section215 at the top center which is pivotable at an angle of nearly 180degrees and a CCD camera 216 mounted in the camera section 215 allowsthe image of a desired object to be captured.

Here, in the display section 212 when the user rotates the camerasection 215 nearly 180 degrees, a speaker 217 provided in the center onthe back of the camera section 215 faces toward the front, whichprovides a normal voice conversation state.

The display section 212 is further provided with an LCD display 218 onthe front showing the reception status of a radio wave, residual amountof the battery, names and telephone numbers registered as a telephonedirectory, transmission history, content of e-mail, simple homepage andimages taken by the CCD camera 216 of the camera section 215.

On the other hand, the main unit 213 is provided with operations keys219 such as numeral keys “0” to “9”, calling key, redial key, end keyand power key, clear key and e-main key and it is possible to entervarious commands using these operation keys 219.

The main unit 213 is also provided with a memo button 220 and amicrophone 221 below the operation keys 219 and it is possible to recordvoice during a call using the memo button 220 and collect the user'svoice during conversation by the microphone 221. The main unit 213 isalso provided with a jog dial 222 above the operation keys 219, which ispivotable and slightly protrudes from the surface of the main unit 213,and executes various operations such as scrolling of the telephonedirectory and e-mail displayed on the LCD display 218 according to therotation operation to the jog dial 222, rolling-up of the simplehomepage and image feeding operations, etc.

For example, when the user selects a desired telephone number from amonga plurality of telephone numbers in the telephone directory displayed onthe LCD display 218 according to the rotation operation of the jog dial222 and presses the jog dial 222 toward inside the main unit 213, themain unit 213 confirms the selected telephone number and executesautomatic calling processing on the relevant telephone number.

By the way, the main unit 213 is provided with a battery pack (notshown) on the back and when a call end key or power key is turned ON,the battery supplies power to the respective sections making them readyto operate.

On the other hand, the main unit 213 is also provided with a memorystick slot 224 to insert a removable memory stick (trademark of SonyCorporation) on the top left side of the main unit 213 and when the memobutton 220 is pressed, it is possible to record the voice of the otherpart in communication in this memory stick or record e-mail, simplehomepage or images taken by the CCD camera 216 according to theoperations of the user.

Here, the memory stick 223 is a type of flash memory card developed bySony Corporation, the present applicant. This memory stick 223 is aflash memory element, which is a kind of electrically erasable andprogrammable non-volatile memory EEPROM (Electrically Erasable andProgrammable Read Only Memory) stored in a small, thin plastic case of21.5 (H).times.50 (W).times.2.8 (D) [mm] and allows write/read ofvarious kinds of data such as images, voice and music through 10 pins.

Furthermore, the memory stick 223 uses an independent serial protocolthat can secure compatibility with apparatuses used even if thespecification of an internal flash memory is changed due to introductionof a large-volume memory, implements high-speed performance with amaximum writing speed of 1.5 and maximum read speed of 2.45 and secureshigh reliability by providing a erroneous erasure prevention switch.

Constructed with the capability of inserting such a memory stick 223,the camera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3 can share data withother electronic devices via this memory stick 223.

As illustrated in FIG. 42, the camera-integrated digital cellular phoneMS3 is constructed of a main control section 250 that controls thedisplay section 212 and main unit 213 in a concentrated manner, a powersupply circuit 251, an operation input control section 252, an imageencoder 253, a camera interface section 254, an LCD (Liquid CrystalDisplay) control section 255, an image decoder 256, amultiplexing/separation section 257, a record/replay section 262, amodulation/demodulation circuit 258 and a voice CODEC 259, all of whichare mutually connected via a main bus 260, and the image encoder 253,the image decoder 256, the multiplexing/separation section 257, themodulation/demodulation circuit 258 and the voice CODEC 259 are mutuallyconnected via a synchronous bus 261.

The power supply circuit 251, when the user turns ON the call end/powerkey, supplies power from the battery pack to the different sections andthereby makes the camera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3 ready tooperate.

The camera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3 converts the voicesignal collected by the microphone 221 to digital voice data by thevoice CODEC 259 in voice conversation mode, subjects this to spreadspectrum processing at the modulation/demodulation circuit 258, subjectsthis to digital/analog conversion processing and frequency conversionprocessing at the transmission/reception circuit 263 and transmits fromthe antenna 214 under the control by the main control section 250 madeup of a CPU, ROM and RAM, etc.

The camera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3 amplifies the receptionsignal received from the antenna 214 in the voice/conversation mode,subjects this to frequency conversion processing and analog/digitalconversion processing, subjects this to despread spectrum processing atthe modulation/demodulation circuit 258, converts to an analog voicesignal at the voice CODEC 259 and outputs this via the speaker 217.

Furthermore, when transmitting e-mail in the data communication mode,the camera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3 sends text data of thee-mail which has been entered by operating the operation keys 219 andjog dial 222 to the main control section 250 via the operation inputcontrol section 252.

The main control section 250 subjects the text data to spread spectrumprocessing at the modulation/demodulation circuit 258, subjects todigital/analog conversation processing and frequency conversionprocessing at the transmission/reception circuit 263 and then transmitsto the base station CS3 (see FIG. 39) via the antenna 214.

In response to this, when receiving e-mail in the data communicationmode, the camera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3 subjects thereception signal received from the base station CS3 via the antenna 214to despread spectrum processing at the modulation/demodulation circuit258, reconstructs the original text data and then displays the text dataas e-mail on the LCD display 218 via the LCD control section 255.

Then, the camera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3 can also recordthe e-mail, which has been received according to the operation of theuser, in the memory stick 223 via the record/replay section 262.

On the other hand, when sending image data in the data communicationmode, the camera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3 supplies theimage data taken by the CCD camera 216 to the image encoder 253 via thecamera interface section 254.

By the way, when no image data is sent, the camera-integrated digitalcellular phone MS3 can also directly display the image data taken by theCCD camera 216 on the LCD display 218 via the camera interface section254 and LCD control section 255.

The image encoder 253 converts the image data supplied from the CCDcamera 216 to encoded image data by compressing/encoding according to apredetermined encoding system such as MPEG (Motion Picture ExpertsGroup) 2 or MPEG4 and sends this to the multiplexing/separation section257.

At this time, the camera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3 sends thevoice collected by the microphone 221 during picture taking by the CCDcamera 216 as digital voice data to the multiplexing/separation section257 via the voice CODEC 259.

The multiplexing/separation section 257 multiplexes the encoded imagedata supplied from the image encoder 253 and the voice data suppliedfrom the voice CODEC 259 according to a predetermined system, subjectsthe resultant multiplexed data to spread spectrum processing at themodulation/demodulation circuit 258, subjects this to digital/analogconversion processing and frequency conversion processing at thetransmission/reception section 262 and transmits via the antenna 214.

On the other hand, in data communication mode, when receiving, forexample, data of a moving image file linked to a simple homepage, etc.,the camera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3 subjects the receptionsignal received via the antenna 214 from the base station CS3 todespread spectrum processing at the modulation/demodulation circuit 258and sends the resultant multiplexed data to the multiplexing/separationsection 257.

The multiplexing/separation section 257 separates the multiplexed datainto encoded image data and voice data, supplies the encoded image datato the image decoder 256 via the synchronous bus 261 and supplies thevoice data to the voice CODEC 259.

The image detector 256 decodes the encoded image data according to adecoding system corresponding to a predetermined encoding system such asMPEG2 or MPEG4 to create reproduced moving image data, supplies this tothe LCD display 218 via the LCD control section 255, and in this way,for example, moving image data contained in the moving image file linkedto the simple homepage is displayed.

At the same time, the voice CODEC 259 converts voice data to an analogvoice signal, then supplies this to the speaker 217 and in this way,reproduces voice data included in the moving image file linked to thesimple homepage, for example.

In this case, as in the case of e-mail, the camera-integrated digitalcellular phone MS3 can record the data linked to the received simplehomepage, etc. in the memory stick 223 via the recording/replay section262 through operations by the user.

In addition to such a configuration, the camera-integrated digitalcellular phone MS3 stores an application program, etc. similar to thatin the embodiment above in the ROM of the main control section 250,accesses the live casting server 150 (see FIG. 12) of the reservationcontrol center 101 based on this application program, can therebyperform live distribution reservation processing including memberregistration and reconfirmation with the live casting server 150, andwhen a reservation is made, receives the reservation setting informationfile (see FIG. 28) and automatically encrypts and saves the file. Atthis time, the camera-integrated digital cellular phone MS3 can performprocessing similar to live distribution processing based on areservation carried out by the user PC 106 in the embodiment above.Thus, during a live distribution, the camera-integrated digital cellularphone MS3 automatically reads the reservation setting information filesaved during the reservation processing above and establishes acommunication/connection with the streaming server 102 and sends thecontent taken by the CCD camera 216 to the streaming server 102 andperforms a live distribution of the content.

As described above, the present invention allows many users toefficiently use functions of the processing server that performspredetermined processing via a network without causing complicatedauthentication processing or operations and prevents interference, etc.by illegal users.

INDUSTRIAL UTILIZATION

This invention is applicable to a distribution system which performs alive distribution and reservation distribution of content includingmusic, moving images and still image, to clients via the computerNetwork like the Internet.

1. (canceled)
 2. A server comprising: circuitry configured to receive,from a first user terminal, a user ID of a user for logging in, transmitto the first user terminal, a first webpage for a user input, the firstwebpage including a first field representing text description associatedwith content data, and a second input field representing a level ofaccess control to restrict users different from the user of the firstuser terminal from accessing the content data, receive, from the firstuser terminal, information associated with the user input including textdescription associated with the content data and a level of accesscontrol, the level of access control being determined from two or moredisclosure levels, store, into a storage device, the receivedinformation associated with the user input in association withinformation of the user, determine whether to update a second webpagebased upon the received level of access control, the second webpagebeing different from the first webpage, and update the second webpage byincluding at least a portion of the received information associated withthe user input based on determining to update the second webpage.
 3. Theserver of claim 2, wherein the first field representing text descriptionassociated with content data and the second input field representing thelevel of access control are simultaneously displayed at the first userterminal.
 4. The server of claim 2, wherein the second webpage includesat least two webpages, and the circuitry is further configured to updatethe two webpages by including at least a portion of the receivedinformation associated with the user input based on determining toupdate the second webpage.
 5. The server of claim 2, wherein the two ormore disclosure levels include a first disclosure level and a seconddisclosure level, and the circuitry is further configured to update thesecond webpage based on the first disclosure level being selected, andnot update the second webpage based on the second disclosure level beingselected.
 6. The server of claim 4, wherein the two or more disclosurelevels include a first disclosure level and a second disclosure level,and the circuitry is further configured to allow public users to accessthe content data based on the first disclosure level being selected, andallow only one or more identified users to access the content data basedon the second disclosure level being selected.
 7. The server of claim 6,wherein the circuitry is further configured to notify the one or moreidentified users of the at least a portion of the received informationassociated with the user input.
 8. The server of claim 5, wherein thefirst disclosure level is a public disclosure level and the seconddisclosure level is a private disclosure level.
 9. The server of claim2, further comprising the storage device.
 10. A method performed by aserver, the method comprising: receiving, from a first user terminal, auser ID of a user for logging in; transmitting to the first userterminal, a first webpage for a user input, the first webpage includinga first field representing text description associated with contentdata, and a second input field representing a level of access control torestrict users different from the user of the first user terminal fromaccessing the content data; receiving, from the first user terminal,information associated with the user input including text descriptionassociated with the content data and a level of access control, thelevel of access control being determined from two or more disclosurelevels; storing, into a storage device, the received informationassociated with the user input in association with information of theuser; determining whether to update a second webpage based upon thereceived level of access control, the second webpage being differentfrom the first webpage; and updating the second webpage by including atleast a portion of the received information associated with the userinput based on determining to update the second webpage.
 11. The methodof claim 10, wherein the first field representing text descriptionassociated with content data and the second input field representing thelevel of access control are simultaneously displayed at the first userterminal.
 12. The method of claim 10, wherein the second webpageincludes at least two webpages, and the method further comprisingupdating the two webpages by including at least a portion of thereceived information associated with the user input based on determiningto update the second webpage.
 13. The method of claim 10, wherein thetwo or more disclosure levels include a first disclosure level and asecond disclosure level, and the method further comprising updating thesecond webpage based on the first disclosure level being selected, andnot updating the second webpage based on the second disclosure levelbeing selected.
 14. The method of claim 12, wherein the two or moredisclosure levels include a first disclosure level and a seconddisclosure level, and the method further comprising allowing publicusers to access the content data based on the first disclosure levelbeing selected, and allowing only one or more identified users to accessthe content data based on the second disclosure level being selected.15. The method of claim 14, further comprising notifying the one or moreidentified users of the at least a portion of the received informationassociated with the user input.
 16. The method of claim 13, wherein thefirst disclosure level is a public disclosure level and the seconddisclosure level is a private disclosure level.
 17. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium including computer program instructions, whichwhen executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method, themethod comprising: receiving, from a first user terminal, a user ID of auser for logging in; transmitting to the first user terminal, a firstwebpage for a user input, the first webpage including a first fieldrepresenting text description associated with content data, and a secondinput field representing a level of access control to restrict usersdifferent from the user of the first user terminal from accessing thecontent data; receiving, from the first user terminal, informationassociated with the user input including text description associatedwith the content data and a level of access control, the level of accesscontrol being determined from two or more disclosure levels; storing,into a storage device, the received information associated with the userinput in association with information of the user; determining whetherto update a second webpage based upon the received level of accesscontrol, the second webpage being different from the first webpage; andupdating the second webpage by including at least a portion of thereceived information associated with the user input based on determiningto update the second webpage.
 18. The non-transitory computer readablemedium of claim 17, wherein the first field representing textdescription associated with content data and the second input fieldrepresenting the level of access control are simultaneously displayed atthe first user terminal.
 19. The non-transitory computer readable mediumof claim 17, wherein the second webpage includes at least two webpages,and the method further comprising updating the two webpages by includingat least a portion of the received information associated with the userinput based on determining to update the second webpage.
 20. Thenon-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the two ormore disclosure levels include a first disclosure level and a seconddisclosure level, and the method further comprising updating the secondwebpage based on the first disclosure level being selected, and notupdating the second webpage based on the second disclosure level beingselected.
 21. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19,wherein the two or more disclosure levels include a first disclosurelevel and a second disclosure level, and the method further comprisingallowing public users to access the content data based on the firstdisclosure level being selected, and allowing only one or moreidentified users to access the content data based on the seconddisclosure level being selected.
 22. The non-transitory computerreadable medium of claim 21, further comprising notifying the one ormore identified users of the at least a portion of the receivedinformation associated with the user input.
 23. A system including oneor more devices, the system comprising: circuitry configured to receive,from a first user terminal, a user ID of a user for logging in, transmitto the first user terminal, a first webpage for a user input, the firstwebpage including a first field representing text description associatedwith content data, and a second input field representing a level ofaccess control to restrict users different from the user of the firstuser terminal from accessing the content data, receive, from the firstuser terminal, information associated with the user input including textdescription associated with the content data and a level of accesscontrol, the level of access control being determined from two or moredisclosure levels, store, into a storage device, the receivedinformation associated with the user input in association withinformation of the user, determine whether to update a second webpagebased upon the received level of access control, the second webpagebeing different from the first webpage, and update the second webpage byincluding at least a portion of the received information associated withthe user input based on determining to update the second webpage.